Dean Yates, Jakarta – Investigators in East Timor have issued an indictment against two Indonesian military officers over the 1999 killing of a Dutch journalist around the time the territory voted to break from Jakarta's harsh rule.
The United Nations, which administered East Timor until its formal independence last May, said in a statement that arrest warrants had been requested from the Dili District Court and would then be forwarded to Indonesia's attorney-general.
The indictment, the first to be issued over the murder of Financial Times reporter Sander Thoenes, also covered the alleged killing of 20 other civilians. A military spokesman in Jakarta denied all the accusations against the two officers.
Thoenes, 30, was killed in the East Timor capital Dili on September 21, 1999, when tension was high following a landslide vote by East Timorese to break from 24 years of Indonesian rule. He was shot in the torso and an ear was cut off.
Machete-wielding pro-Jakarta militia – backed by elements of the Indonesian military – laid waste to East Timor following the vote and the UN estimates more than 1,000 people were killed.
The statement by the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) said the indictment was against the commanding officer of Battalion 745 at the time and a platoon commander.
"The indictment charges 17 counts of crimes against humanity, including 14 counts of murder in which members of Battalion 745 are alleged to have killed 21 civilians during September 1999," the statement said.
The UN is providing assistance to the fledgling democracy for another two years following East Timor's formal independence, including rebuilding the territory's legal and court system.
Both the military officers are believed to be residing in Indonesia, the statement added. It did not name them.
Deputy military spokesman Brigadier-General Tono Suratman – East Timor's military commander at the time of the bloody vote – said Battalion 745 found Thoenes's body, but did not kill him. "It was certainly not them that did it," Suratman said.
A special human rights court in Jakarta has been hearing 18 cases connected to the East Timor violence, including that of Suratman, who faces the death penalty after being accused of letting his troops murder civilians. He denies any wrongdoing.
Barman Zahir, spokesman for the Attorney-General's office, said Indonesia's own investigation into the journalist's killing had been suspended because of limited staff.
He indicated Indonesia would not cooperate in sending the two officers to East Timor.
"We have to look at the arrest warrant first. We cannot arrest our [military officers] just like that ... We had an agreement with East Timor that human rights trials should be held in Indonesia, not in East Timor," Zahir told Reuters.
The Jakarta court has delivered verdicts for seven of the 18 defendants but only one has been found guilty. The other six, all Indonesian soldiers or policemen, have been set free, triggering scorn from human rights groups.
Suratman, like the other military and police defendants on trial, has remained on active duty during a process being closely watched by the international community.