Jakarta – The Indonesian government has no comment to make on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's report to the UN Security Council in which he expressed dissapointment about the outcome of Indonesian court trials of human right violations in East Timor in 1999, a spokesman said. .
Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirajuda, said here on Tuesday night he understood there were some parts in the report indicating that a number of countries were disappointmed about the results of the Indonesian human right trials. But according Hassan there was no need to worry about the UN Secretary General's report because Annan himself did not mention measures to be taken to follow up his disappointment.
"He only mentioned the fact that there was disappointment about the case [in Indonesia] but he said nothing about what actions the UN needed to take nor about forming an experts comission," the minister said.
Hassan pointed out the Indonesian and Timor Leste governments had agreed they prefered to take reconciliation measures in solving the human rights violations in East Timor in 1999.
At the UN headquarters in New York, Annan earlier praised Indonesia-East Timor cooperation in discussing the two countries' borders , saying the discussions were nearing a conclusion.
In his report on the UN Mission for East Timor (UNMISET)'s role on Monday, the UN secretary general said the talks on the Indonesia-East Timor borders were expected to be finalized in a few weeks' time.
Minister Hassan, meanwhile, said recently the Indonesian and Timor Leste governments had agreed not to discuss what happened in the past between the two countries and therefore holding an international tribunal on 1999 human rights violations in East Timor was irrelevant.
"The justice approach will harm the spirit of reconciliation, open up wounds of the past and that will hurt," the minister said here on Saturday when asked about the agenda of a meeting he is to have with his Timor Leste counterpart, Ramos Horta, in Bali on Sunday afternoon.
Speaking to reporters during a break in a football match between the foreign ministry's team and foreign diplomats at the Borobudur hotel, Hassan said ,"opening wounds of the past will harm bilateral relations." Indonesia and Timor Leste preferred the reconciliatory approach over the holding of a human rights tribunal or the UN secretary general's idea to form an experts' comission, he said.
"We prefer to cultivate good bilateral relations as neighbours and orient ourselves to the future, not the past," he said.
The proposed formation of the UN commission of experts came to the surface as New Zealand planned to urge the UN to form an international tribunal to settle the human rights violations in East Timor.
New Zealand made this plan after it became disappointed over the Indonesian court's rulings of acquitting certain Indonesian police and military officers accused of committing the abuses.
A similar disappointment had also been aired by the United States, but the relevant Indonesian government authorities thought that there was no need to give a serious response to the countries' disappointment. Indonesia believed that court decisions must be respected.
Eighteen people, including military and police high-ranking officers, stood trial at a special court handling East Timor cases in Indonesia, but only two civilian figures had been convicted, namely former East Timor Governor Abilio Soares and integration leader Eurico Guterres.