Jakarta – Indonesia's first human rights court on Tuesday ruled that the trial of five officers accused of failing to prevent a church massacre in East Timor in 1999 should proceed, rejecting defence arguments it violated the constitution.
"The ad-hoc human rights court has the jurisdiction to try cases of human rights violations in East Timor. The objections of the defence lawyers cannot be accepted," the court ruled in a statement read out in turn by the five judges hearing the case.
Defence lawyers had asked for the charges of gross rights violations to be dropped on the grounds that the alleged crimes occurred before Indonesia's human rights law was passed in 2000, rendering the hearing retroactive and in breach of the constitutional ban on such a move.
But the panel of judges ruled that the nature of the alleged crimes outweighed any principles on retroactivity. "The more serious a crime is the more it is needed to bring justice to the perpetrators. This need outweighs any legal formality, for in this case the non-retroactive principle can be set aside."
The court rejected similar arguments from the defence lawyers for two other suspects, former East Timor police chief Timbul Silaen, and former East Timor governor Abilio Soares, on March 28.
Military officers packed the court in central Jakarta as the trial resumed of the four middle-ranking army officers and one police officer who are accused of failing to prevent the massacre of 27 civilians in a church in the southern border town of Suai on September 6, 1999.
On trial are Colonel Herman Sedyono, Colonel Lilik Kushardianto, Major Ahmad Syamsuddin, Captain Sugito, and Adjunct Senior Commissioner Gatot Subiyaktoro.
Their hearing was adjourned until next Tuesday, when the prosecution is expected to produce six witnesses. The five are among 18 military, police, civilian officials and East Timorese militiamen who face trial in the new rights court over army-backed attacks by pro-Jakarta militias against East Timorese independence supporters in April and September 1999. If convicted the defendants face sentences ranging from 10 years in prison to death.
Militiamen organised by senior Jakarta officials waged a campaign of intimidation before East Timor's August 1999 vote to split from Indonesia, and a "scorched earth" revenge campaign afterwards. They killed hundreds of people, torched towns and forced more than 250,000 people into Indonesian-ruled West Timor after the vote.