Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The joint Indonesia-Timor Leste Truth and Friendship Commission said Friday it received backing of Indonesian Military (TNI) and government officials to query all those allegedly involved in human rights abuses following the 1999 independence referendum.
The commission's co-chairman from Timor Leste, Dionisio Babo Soares, said that the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, defense minister, foreign minister, TNI chief, National Police chief and members of House of Representatives had all expressed their support for the commission to question former and active military and civilian officials implicated in violence in the former Indonesian province of East Timor.
"We are now in the final stage of document review. In one or two months, we will begin interviewing all people related to the case. And Indonesian ministers and lawmakers pledged their support for our work during our meeting with them," he told a press conference.
Indonesia and Timor Leste established the 10-member commission in August 2005, with the five representatives of each country charged with investigating human rights abuses committed in the tiny country. According to the United Nations, at least 1,500 people were killed by militia groups allegedly backed by the Indonesian Military.
The commission, with a mandate until August 2007 and modeled on similar restorative justice bodies set up in South Africa, Chile and Argentina, has no powers to prosecute alleged human rights violators. However, it can give recommendations to the Indonesian and Timor Leste governments to grant amnesty to people who confessed to involvement and expressed remorse, and to compensate victims and rehabilitate victims.
The commission said it reviewed all existing materials documented by the Indonesian National Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights Violation in Timor Leste (KPP HAM), and the Ad-Hoc Human Rights Court on East Timor, as well as reports from the Special Panels for Serious Crimes and the Commission of Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in Timor Leste to determine the existence of human rights violations and people implicated in the acts.
The commission has identified 14 incidents of gross human rights violations that occurred in 1999 around the time East Timor voted to split from Indonesia.
A commission member from Indonesia, Achmad Ali, added that Gen. (ret.) Wiranto, the military chief during the unrest, was among the high-ranking officials who agreed to meet with the commission to explain the course of events in 1999.
The legal expert from Makassar's Hasanuddin University declined to name other former and active officers, but based on the four documents, Brig. Gen. A. Nur Muis, a former chief of the now defunct Wira Dharma military command that oversaw East Timor during the ballot, and the then chief of the Dili military command, Lt. Col. Sudjarwo, will likely be questioned.
The Indonesian Ad-Hoc Human Rights Court has tried the two officers and 16 other members of the military on human rights charges relating to East Timor. The court has never found any middle- or high-ranking military and police officers guilty of involvement in the atrocities.
The court only sentenced Eurico Guterres, former leader of the pro-Indonesia militia group Aitarak, to 10 years in prison, while former East Timor governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares was sentenced to three years in prison by the Supreme Court. Eight months later he was acquitted of all charges because of new evidence.
Earlier, Gen. Fahrul Razi of the Indonesian Army provided an explanation to the commission.