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Military did not order killings: Wiranto

Source
Agence France Presse - December 24, 1999

Jakarta – Former Indonesian armed forces chief General Wiranto on Friday told a human rights commission there had been no plan or policy for either a genocide or crimes against humanity in East Timor.

"There was no planning process or policy to do things that can be classified as genocide or crimes against humanity," Wiranto told journalists after answering questions from the state-backed Commission of Human Rights Abuses in East Timor (KPP HAM).

Wiranto said the institution of the Indonesian armed forces "has never issued the order, even more so to encourage, the burning of cities, the killing of people or to force evacuations." KPP HAM has summoned Wiranto, as well as five other generals and several top pro-Indonesia militia leaders to answer questions over their "knowledge and involvement" in the September mayhem that followed the announcement of the pro-independence ballot in East Timor.

The militias, which the United Nations, the KPP HAM and other observers have said were backed by elements of the Indonesian army, devastated the territory and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.

Wiranto was accompanied by three lawyers and former justice minister Muladi, who coordinates the defence team for the armed forces over East Timor. "This is not an arena where a suspect is interrogated," he said of the nearly three hours of questioning.

"This is a process of giving information to the KPP HAM, to deflect accusations by several sides that there were war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in East Timor." Wiranto, coordinating minister for security and political affairs in the cabinet of President Abdurrahman Wahid, was military commander during the violence in East Timor.

He was questioned by KPP HAM members Todung Mulya Lubis, Nursyahbani Kacasungkana, Munir and Asmara Nababan, commission chairman Albert Hasibuan said.

Nababan said the information obtained from Wiranto "has answered our questions." But he added the general's statements would be cross-checked with those from other military officers.

KPP HAM member Kusparmono Irsan said the commission's qestionning of military officers has so far yielded little. "Our investigation is stagnating, we are not moving forward or backward," Irsan said after questioning a former intelligence head of a district military command in East Timor earlier Friday. The body also questioned a former military commander before Wiranto.

Indonesia has objected to the setting up of a UN rights inquiry into the East Timor violence, saying it is capable of investigating allegations of atrocities and human rights abuses itself, and that it will not be bound by the UN findings.

The UN panel is to report to Secretary General Kofi Annan before December 31 to enable him to decide on the follow up, including whether an international war crimes tribunal is needed.

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