East Timor map showing Suai. Credit: CIA World Factbook.
By Rich Bowden
East Timor’s decision to release an Indonesian accused of crimes against humanity has drawn international protests including a warning from the United Nations.
As President Jose Ramos Horta was delivering an August 30 speech urging his country to reconcile with Indonesia and to end their pursuit of alleged killers of East Timorese during their brutal 24-year occupation of the country, authorities secretly released Indonesian West Timor government official Martenus Bere.
Mr Bere is alleged to have been a militia leader during the frenzied last days of Indonesian occupation leading up to a vote on independence in 1999 which resulted in an estimated 1500 deaths. Bere is accused of being the military commander who led the attack during the infamous Suai Church massacre in September 1999 which left around 200 dead.
The release brought condemnation from the UN with the body’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, accusing the East Timorese government of ignoring international protocols on genocide.
”I appreciate your government’s desire to develop healthy relations with Indonesia and welcome the progress that has been made in that regard,” Mr Pillay said in a letter reported by The Age. ”However, I trust that you will appreciate that your government should not avoid its international obligations in the name of bilateral co-operation.”
“No impunity”
A spokeswoman for Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, said last week that the release was contrary to Security Council resolutions.
“The UN’s firm position is that there can be no amnesty or impunity for serious crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,” she said.
However East Timor’s Foreign Minister earlier defended the decision to release the accused militiaman.
Government palace, Dili, East Timor. Credit: J. Patrick Fischer
“If we have a citizen in the same situation in Indonesia I will immediately react and try to follow the situation and see how best we can have him back to Timor Leste and be subjected to our own laws,” he was quoted as saying in a September 2 ABC News report.
“I am not in a position to judge other countries’ capabilities or capacities but I certainly trust that they have also a judicial system in transition. They are doing their best to respond to the challenge that they are also facing,” he said.
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