Indonesian presidential candidate, former armed forces chief Wiranto continues to attract controversy. United Nations prosecutors in East Timor have issued an arrest warrant against General Wiranto for alleged crimes against humanity. Questions are also being asked about the general's choice of Vice Presidential running mate – the brother of former President Abdurrahman Wahid, Solahuddin Wahid.

Presenter/Interviewer: Karon Snowdon

Speakers: Asmara Nababan, former Secretary General of the Indonesian Human Rights Commission, now Executive Director of the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights Studies in Jakarta; Karna Lesmana, campaign worker for Wiranto.

Snowdon: With just weeks before serious campaigning starts, former General Wiranto has described the latest legal move against him as a "character assassination".

Despite the allegations against him, Wiranto was chosen as the candidate for the Golkar Party in Indonesia's first direct elections for president.

Golkar won the most seats in the recent parliamentary elections and according to a member of his campaign committee, Karna Lesmana, the Party isn't worried about any public backlash.

Lesmana: No actually we, the Golkar Party understood what's happening, so they are actually really 100% solid behind Mr Wiranto. Because they know they actually from all the track record that he is a real statesman and Indonesia needs him, so that's why I think Golkar Party is solidly behind him.

Snowdon: The arrest warrant had been flagged in March by Deputy Prosecutor Nicholas Koumjian of East Timor's Special Crimes Unit.

He took the extraordinary step of publicly releasing the report of evidence accusing Wiranto of war crimes and of command responsibility for the abuses in East Timor after its vote for independence from Jakarta in 1999.

At first it appeared Koujian would get his desired result. But the indictment might end up stalling after a request by East Timor's chief prosecutor for a review of the case.

Senior investigators working on the special panel for serious crimes told the ABC they fear proceedings against Wiranto will be dropped because of concerns about the case by senior East Timorese leaders.

This was repeated by Karna Lesmana who accuses other Presidential candidates of stirring the issue up for political purposes.

Lesmana: And we even get some information from the Timor Leste (East Timor) government people who said they feel very sorry because people who are involved in this presidential candidate are playing this game you see.

Snowdon: While Wiranto and Golkar can dismiss the arrest warrant as a stunt to discredit his election campaign, others are taking it seriously. Asmara Nababan is a former Secretary General of the Indonesian Human Rights Commission. While in that role he believed an international tribunal was the only solution to Indonesia's failure to prosecute Wiranto and others accused of serious crimes in East Timor.

But he points out that Wiranto also stands accused of culpability over the military's role in inciting the May 1998 riots in Jakarta, sparked by the shooting of several anti-Suharto student demonstrators, and in which more than 12-hundred died and dozens of Chinese women were gang raped.

And his accuser was none other than his choice of Vice Presidential running mate, Solahuddin Wahid. Mr Wahid headed the team from the Human Rights Commission which investigated the riots.

Nababan: This is a question of the credibility of Mr Solahuddin Wahid. He was the head of the investigation team of the National Commission of Humnan Rights which investigated the May riots and came to the conclusion and recommended to the Attorney General that Wiranto is responsible for the gross human rights violations on May riots 1998.

Snowdon: Can we clarify that? Its my understanding that the investigation issued a summons for Mr Wiranto to appear as a witness during that investigation into the May riots. Was there a final report which accused him of responsibility for human rights violations during those riots?

Nababan: Yeah. And the report came with a set of recommendations to the Attorney General's offcie to further investigate.

Snowdon: With polls suggesting General Wiranto is running third in the race for president, Golkar is hoping Wahid will bring millions of votes from his famous name and from Nahdlatul Ulama. But Asmara Nababan says the families still waiting for justice after years of military violence, including those killed during the May riots, wont be among them.

Nababan: I got a call yesterday and today from many victims of several incidents, they're very mad, very angry that Solahuddin agree to become candidate for Vice President. The victims, the families of the victims are very upset.