Susan Sim, Jakarta – If history is written by victors and it is left to fiction to lionise the defeated, then General Wiranto and his nemesis, Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman, cannot have crafted a better outcome than the one dictated by the hard realities of Indonesian politics.
Someone has to pay for the rape and destruction of newly-free East Timor almost a year ago, the liberators – a United Nations which funded and supervised the independence ballot – cried.
And so, Mr Marzuki, as chief Indonesian human rights advocate then, signed an instruction last September authorising a group of activists with no enforcement powers to look for suspects. When they turned up with a list of 30 alleged abusers four months later, Mr Marzuki, now Attorney-General, had the task of gathering evidence for indictments.
If fate were any more peculiar, he would have been named Defence Minister in the new Cabinet last week, required now to defend the military from being destroyed by over-zealous human rights enforcers.
But instead he is still A-G – thanks partly to his own Golkar party leader, whose only request to a reshuffling President was that Mr Marzuki keep his post – and now required to explain why he failed yesterday to accuse General Wiranto of crimes against humanity.
But did anyone seriously think Jakarta was going to put in the dock a former military commander whose main sin is not delivering the right historical result – a pro-Indonesia vote – last August?
A president much of the establishment detested had suddenly offered the East Timorese an option two – independence. Dr B.J. Habibie will go down in history on the side of the liberators. But most Indonesians of any standing would prefer to consign him to the dustbin of history for allowing the UN to snatch East Timor away.
Gen Wiranto was named a potential suspect by a fact-finding team back in January because it was politically expedient then – President Abdurrahman Wahid needed a good excuse, and international support, to get rid of him.
He no longer poses much of a threat to the presidency, if left alone. Indeed the president cannot afford to antagonise his army anymore if he wants his generals to continue a show of support for him.
Not exactly the most effective commander-in-chief the Indonesian Defence Force (TNI) ever had, Gen Wiranto does not arouse the sort of fanatical support which would see troops mobilising to save him from the ignominy of a trial.
But as an institution, the TNI has taken a bashing in recent months and the public humiliation of a former commander for carrying out the first principle of their Sapta Marga (Soldier's Oath) – keeping the nation united – would have hollowed out what little cohesive strength it had.
Mr Marzuki has always known it was not evidence he required to show that Gen Wiranto either orchestrated the atrocities in East Timor or deliberately failed to stop a rag-tag bunch of militiamen and rogue soldiers from committing the crimes. Indeed aides to Gen Wiranto told The Straits Times months ago that the A-G assured the general that he would never be able to get the requisite legal evidence to take him to court.
Indictments would hinge on political will, specifically that of the president, who will have to consider his own political constituency. Both President Abdurrahman and the A-G know that a sustained international outcry could force their hand too, particularly with an emotional anniversary drawing renewed global attention now and an unruly militia stirring up trouble at Indonesia's border with the new UN protectorate.
A half-trial of sorts is the required minimum – prosecute those whose bloody handprints can never be white-washed, keep the others on the hook as potential defendants, and hope the world is satisfied.
The principles are on Jakarta's side. Among advocates of international human rights tribunals, there is an emerging consensus that where national courts have begun an investigation, the world should back off.
It is a principle articulated most forcefully by the United States government as it seeks what Human Rights Watch calls "ironclad assurances" that none of its nationals can ever be prosecuted under the International Criminal Court treaty, a new mechanism to prosecute individuals who commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The treaty is still about 48 nations shy of the 60 ratifications required, a slow process given that the US joined Iraq, China and four other countries to vote against the treaty back in July 1998. So if Washington can argue that its generals must always be protected from any international court because it is likely to be driven by political motivation than a genuine concern for human rights, than certainly, Jakarta has to be given some benefit of the doubt when it says its court is willing, but has no evidence, to charge a general for crimes of omission.
If the US is to play its traditional role as main engine behind a UN push for an international tribunal, then it has to consider this: Does Washington want Mr Abdurrahman to stake his presidency on exacting retribution for East Timor's sufferings?
The 19 names on the list
- Maj-Gen Adam Damiri, former regional commander
- Brig-Gen FX Tono Suratman, former army commander
- Brig-Gen Timbul Silaen, former police chief
- Abilio Soares, former East Timor governor
- Lt-Col Hulman Gultom, former Dili police chief
- Lt-Col (Inf) Soedjarwo, former Dili military chief
- Lt-Col (Inf) Asep Kuswandi, former Liquisa military chief
- Leonito Martins, former Liquisa district head
- Lt-Col (Pol) Adios Salova, former Liquisa police chief
- Col (Inf) Herman Sediyono, former Cova Lima district head
- Lt-Col CZI Lilik Kushardiyanto, former Suai military chief
- Lt-Col Gatot Subiaktoro, former Suai police chief
- Capt (Inf) Ahmad Syamsuddin, former Suai military chief of staff
- Lt (Inf) Sugito, former Suai subdistrict military chief
- Col M Nur Muis, former Wiradharma military chief
- Lt-Col Yayat Sudrajat, former chief of Tribuana task force
- Izidio Manek, fighter
- Alisio Mau, fighter
- Martinus Bere, fighter