Jakarta – Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda and several members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday shrugged off the United Nations-backed East Timorese court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for former Indonesian Military chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto after charging him with crimes against humanity.

"It [the warrant] has no international jurisdiction, including on Indonesia. So why we should make a fuss about it," Hassan said during a hearing with House Commission I, which oversees security and foreign affairs here. Hassan said he had not yet received the official letter from East Timor about the arrest warrant.

The UN-backed court on Monday issued the arrest warrant for Wiranto, who is also the Golkar Party's presidential candidate, for his alleged crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999 when the Timorese voted to reject autonomy and eventually become independent.

The foreign minister also said that the East Timor Serious Crimes Unit (SCU), which indicted Wiranto last year and sought the arrest warrant, was not established by the United Nations. According to him, the SCU may issue a 1,000 warrants but they would not affect Indonesian citizens.

Effendi Choirie, a House member from the National Awakening Party (PKB), called on the government to reject any warrant that would bring any Indonesians to a foreign court. "Wiranto is an Indonesian citizen, and if he makes a mistake he must be tried in Indonesia," he argued.

Another legislator Maj. Gen. (ret) Sidharto Danusubroto said that the government should study carefully all the legal consequences over the issuance of the warrant as "East Timor was once Indonesian territory". "The SCU may argue that during the alleged crimes, East Timor was an Indonesian province," Sidharto said.

Meanwhile in Dili, East Timor's prosecutor general lashed out on Tuesday at "his men" who issued an arrest warrant for Wiranto and demanded changes in the approach to the case.

Prosecutor General Longuinhos Monteiro filed a court motion for a "revision" of the case against Wiranto, AFP reported on Tuesday from Dili. "I regret that arrest warrant," Monteiro told a press conference. "My men have opened fire without an order from me," he said, implying that subordinates acted without authorization.

Montero also reportedly said his trust in the United Nations and in the court's international staff had diminished. It was not immediately clear how this would affect the case against Wiranto, who is one of the leading candidates for Indonesia's presidency.

According to Reuters, some top East Timorese officials have suggested they are more interested in pursuing stronger economic and political ties with giant neighbor Indonesia than cases involving the tiny territory's bloody break from Jakarta in 1999.

Human Rights Cases Linked to Wiranto