Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – East Timor's president, who has asked Indonesia's human rights court not to single out scapegoats for killings during the territory's 1999 independence vote, is neither upset nor angry with the court verdicts so far.
However, Xanana Gusmao's spokesman and chief of staff Agio Pereira told Reuters on Friday that Indonesia needed to show it could deliver justice.
The court this week acquitted six Indonesians on charges of crimes against humanity over violence in East Timor, denting hopes the government was serious about accounting for the bloodshed.
"This court is seen as Indonesia's way of solving things without going to an international court so it really needs to prove it can do its job," Pereira said by telephone from East Timor's capital Dili.
In a letter read out in court last month, Gusmao said East Timorese and Indonesians must live up to the same moral standards when analysing sensitive matters such as human rights violations.
When asked whether Gusmao was upset or angry with the rulings so far, Pereira answered: "No."
But it was not immediately evident the decision would have any major impact on US moves toward rebuilding military ties largely severed after the mayhem that surrounded East Timor's vote to end 24 years of Jakarta rule.
Scapegoat
Some East Timorese said they believed ex-governor Abilio Soares, a native of East Timor, was being made a scapegoat while Indonesia was letting others go free.
Soares was sentenced to three years in jail while an ex-police chief, four mid-ranking police officers and another policemen – all native Indonesians – were acquitted. All seven were charged with crimes against humanity.
"It's not fair to put all human rights violations on Abilio's shoulders. Abilio has just become the scapegoat," Dili newspaper Suara Timor Lorosae quoted Father Jovito do Rego Araujo, deputy of East Timor's truth and reconciliation commission, as saying.
The verdict against Soares has also been seen as lip-service to appease nations that nudged Jakarta to act over the violence the United Nations said killed more than 1,000, and which was largely blamed on pro-Jakarta militia backed by elements of Indonesia's military.
"The bottom line is they're sacrificing the civilians in order ... so that there's no loophole and possibility of an international tribunal," Johnson Panjaitan, deputy of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, told Reuters.
US studying verdicts
Among the things at stake for Indonesia over the trials are improved military ties with the United States, largely severed in the wake of the violence. But comments from US officials on the latest developments have thus far been relatively restrained.
White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said: "Without commenting on specifics of that case, we generally applaud the Indonesian government for holding accountable the government officials and the military officials for activities in East Timor," she told reporters.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said: "We certainly urge the Indonesian government to redouble its efforts to mount credible prosecutions to bring perpetrators of atrocities in East Timor to justice."