Vaudine England, Jakarta – Several soldiers are among six suspects being questioned by Indonesian authorities over the murder of UN relief workers and an East Timorese militia leader in West Timor, it emerged yesterday.
"There are several [soldiers] among the suspects currently being questioned over the attack on the UN office in Atambua," M. A. Rachman, of the Attorney-General's office, said in Kupang, the main town in West Timor.
Mr Rachman, the head of a team investigating human rights violations in neighbouring East Timor, who is also assisting in the probe into the UN deaths, declined to give further details, saying soldiers from a local military unit were being questioned by police in Atambua.
Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman was not sure of the ranks of the soldiers involved, but stressed the suspects were rogue elements of the armed forces and were acting outside the chain of command. A spokesman for the armed forces, Air Vice-Marshal Graito Usodo, confirmed members of local army units in West Timor had been arrested in connection with the killings on September 5 and 6.
The murders provoked condemnation and economic pressure from the international community and intensified the pressure on Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to gain control over his military.
"More heads will be rolling," said H. S. Dillon, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights and an adviser to Mr Marzuki, after a week in which both the police chief and the deputy armed forces chief were dismissed.
"These sackings and reshuffles are all part of an attempt by the Government to clear out the ancien regime from the armed forces and the police. It is that ancien regime which is thwarting our transition toward democracy," Mr Dillon said.
The decapitated body of Olivio Moruk, 45, the head of the Laksaur pro-Indonesia militia, was found near the West Timorese border town of Atambua on September 5. The following day hundreds of militia hacked to death three foreign UN aid workers – an American, a Croatian and an Ethiopian – and a local member of staff, as well as 11 villagers.
"There are now seven suspects in connection with the Olivio case and six in connection with the killing of the UNHCR workers," Mr Marzuki said.
Efforts by Mr Wahid's Government to get a grip on spiralling violence, both in West Timor and in the terror attacks on Jakarta, have featured several claims of intended arrests or accusations that have later proved to hold little water. One confidant of the President wondered if there was indeed firm evidence about military involvement in the killings.
But he said even if there was not, the Government was effectively sending a message to the public that the military's impunity was coming to an end. And in a further bid to placate international criticism following the UN deaths, it was announced that a four-day military operation to seize firearms and other weapons from Jakarta-trained militias would begin today. "Yes, it is true that there will be a disarmament between September 22 and 26 so that the international community can see that we are serious," said the military spokesman, Vice-Marshal Graito.
Mr Marzuki also said yesterday that whether former president Suharto was made to appear at his own corruption trial was a matter of law, not medicine, adding to reports that Suharto may be forcibly brought to court regardless of doctors' reports.
"We don't see how the Presiding judge can rule other than that the defendant will have to be there for the judge himself to see, whether he is fit or unfit to continue with the trial," Mr Marzuki said.
"There is an added dimension to this case. The public needs to be assured that we are not merely going through the motions of the legal process, but coming out in full. It is time now to mobilise the people, to mobilise public pressure against the police, against parts of the military and so on."