Dili – Prosecutors in East Timor on Tuesday charged 17 Indonesian and East Timorese members of the Indonesian army with murderous attacks on independence supporters and other civilians.
The United Nations-funded Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) accused them of taking part in an organised campaign of violence against the civilian population of Baucau district between 26 March and 12 September 1999, in the run-up to and after the territory's vote in August that year to break away from Indonesia.
The indictment charged 17 individuals with a total of 14 counts of Crimes Against Humanity including "murder, torture, persecution and other inhumane acts."
The accused Indonesians were Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hutadjulu, who was the military commander in the Baucau district, his deputy Captain Karel Polla and Sergeant Irwan, formerly a first sergeant with the intelligence section of Baucau Military Command.
Also accused is Joanico Belo, an East Timorese sergeant serving with the Kopassus special Indonesian forces who was also the commander of the East Timor Integration Fighter Forces (PPI) for Eastern East Timor and the head of the Tim Saka paramilitary group in Baucau district in 1999.
The Baucau indictments specifically mention the murders, allegedly by soldiers, of a total of six pro-independence supporters and two women in several places in March, May and September 1999.
The Baucau military commander and eight other soldiers are charged with the torture of five independence supporters.
SCU Prosecutors allege that the Tim Saka paramilitary group was established by the Indonesian military in Baucau district in the early 1980s and were armed, trained and funded by the military.
During 1999 it received direct orders from military commanders and the Baucau military intelligence section, including instructions to attack independence supporters.
It said all the accused are believed to be in Indonesia and arrest warrants would be forwarded to legal authorities in Jakarta and to Interpol.
Prosecutors in East Timor have now charged 367 people including top Indonesian officers over atrocities in the territory in 1999 but 280 of them remain at large in Indonesia.
Jakarta, which refuses to hand anyone over to East Timor prosecutors, conducted its own rights trials over the 1999 atrocities but these were widely seen as a whitewash.
Militias armed and organised by the Indonesian military carried out a campaign of terror before the independence ballot and then a vengeful scorched-earth policy that left much of the territory in ruins.
At least 1,000 people were killed in 1999 and more than 200,000 people were forced across the border into West Timor. Most have now returned. After 31 months of UN stewardship, East Timor became independent in May 2002.