Timor Tragedy in Danger of becoming a farce by Tom Hyland reports from Jakarta The Age Newspaper 3:46pm 11th Jan, 2003   January 11 2003    Indonesian soldiers accused of crimes in East Timor appear not to take their trials seriously. Nor need they. Tom Hyland reports from Jakarta.    The accused sits with his seven lawyers in the listless heat of a Jakarta court room. He occasionally wipes his brow and shifts in his seat, but mostly he is straight-backed, gazing with a soldier's practised stare into the middle distance. Major-General Tono Suratman, former Indonesian army commander in East Timor, seems bored.    In the witness chair, his former chief of staff, Lieutenant-Colonel Hardiono Saroso, is being questioned by the panel of judges about two of the worst massacres in East Timor in 1999 - the slaughter of up to 60 civilians at a church compound in Liquica on April 6 and the killing 11 days later of at least 12 people sheltering in the Dili house of a pro-independence figure.    Colonel Hardiono is pressed by the judges on what he knew about the killings. In the space of 10 minutes he replies five times that he didn't know; five times that he didn't remember; and twice that he had no information.    He is, however, able to tell the court that the killings were carried out by machete.    Watching the performance are about 15 members of the army's notorious special forces, Kopassus. With them, but not in uniform, sits Major-General Zacky Anwar Makarim, a Kopassus veteran who is believed to have been in direct charge of a covert operation, authorised from Jakarta, to undermine East Timor's vote on independence then destroy the country when the vote went against them. The conspicuous Kopassus presence is an act of solidarity and a symbol of the army's defiant unrepentance for the violence of 1999.    As a courtroom spectacle, this week's performance in Indonesia's Human Rights Court confirms what human rights groups and independent observers have been saying for months: Jakarta's effort to bring to account officials for a murderous campaign of intimidation and revenge has degenerated into a farce.    "It was just a show at the start and the continuation of this process has confirmed it's still just a show," says Hendardi, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Foundation. He and other observers fear the trials have undermined Indonesia's efforts to end the culture of impunity that has surrounded the army, further tarnished the reputation of a scandal-plagued judiciary and set back attempts to establish civilian supremacy over the military.    If General Suratman seems relaxed about the outcome of his trial - he is accused of failing to prevent the killings - then it's with good reason. Of the 18 people charged over the 1999 violence, 11 have been acquitted. Three have been found guilty, but all are free on appeal, a process that could take years. Four other trials, including General Suratman's, are still under way.    The special court was set up at a time of intense international pressure on Jakarta to bring to justice those responsible for the East Timor violence, with calls for an international tribunal to try those responsible, When Indonesia rejected this option, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan accepted Jakarta's promise to set up a credible court process that met international standards.    But critics say the process was flawed even before it began, with the government of Megawati Sukarnoputri lacking the political will to bring senior officers to justice. Officials who allegedly directed the violence, including former armed forces chief Wiranto and General Zacky Anwar, escaped charges, even though they had been named as suspects by Indonesian's National Human Rights Commission.    "TNI (the army) has an interest in protecting these people so as not to create a precedent and Megawati still depends on the military to protect her position and power," says human rights activist Hendardi. "From that point onward, it was a victory for the military and police. It set a precedent that the ad hoc court is just a mechanism to ease international pressure, not to uphold justice."    The flaws were compounded by the way government lawyers framed the charges, ignoring the military chain of command and charging mostly locally based officers, not their superiors. The charges portray the events of 1999 as a conflict between East Timorese factions in which Indonesian forces were bystanders, not leading players.    The concerns of human rights groups at the start of the trials have been confirmed as they near their end. Late last month, Human Rights Watch labelled the trials a sham and a whitewash and called for the UN to commission an experts' report to examine the failure of the court. But most observers detect international indifference now that Western countries are seeking Indonesia's support in the war on terrorism.    That war has changed the entire international dynamic, says a senior UN official who has closely followed human rights issues in East Timor since 1999. '    'Now, the trials need to be just 1 per cent above a joke and they'll get away with it."    A foreign diplomat who has observed the trials agrees they are so flawed that, by any human rights standards, all of the accused should be acquitted. But he predicts the West will be constrained in its response.    Moves by Australia and the US to restore ties with the Indonesian military may be complicated by the trials, but "nobody will pull the plug on Indonesia".    Although Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has privately raised concerns about the trials with his counterpart, Hassan Wirajuda, public comment has been muted, with Canberra holding off on final judgment while appeals are pending.    For despondent Indonesian activists, the trials have profound implications for the future of Indonesian democracy. They had hoped finally to end the impunity of a military that for four decades has been allowed to get away with murder. Instead, they now fear the military will be emboldened. Visit the related web page
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