6 February 2001 -- The Prosecutor General of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) today filed an indictment charging five persons with crimes against humanity committed during the chaos that followed the territory's vote for independence in 1999.
The five persons -- an officer of the Indonesian Army, an Indonesian civil servant, two members of a Timorese militia and a local village chief -- are suspected of murder, rape, torture, unlawful deprivation of liberty, inhumane and degrading treatment and persecution in the district of Bobonaro between April and October 1999. According to the indictment, the attacks were directed in particular against women whose husbands were believed to support the pro-independence movement.
Two militia members - Jhoni Franca and Jose Cardoso Fereira - and a village chief - Sabino Gouvia Leite - are already in detention in East Timor. Second Lieutenant Bambang Indra of the Indonesian Army and Francisco Noronha, an Indonesian civil servant, are at large and are believed to have left East Timor, UNTAET said.
The first charges of crimes against humanity in East Timor were filed on 11 December, accusing eleven persons of committing crimes such as murder, torture, deportation and forcible transfer of civilian population in Lautem District between April and September 1999.
Meanwhile the first trial of a person suspected of serious crimes following East Timor's 1999 referendum began today in the Dili District Court. The case involves a 30-year-old pro-independence activist charged with the murder of a militia member in Gleno village, Ermera district, in September 1999. The suspect admitted to the murder but pleaded not guilty, alleging he had been forced to commit the crime "by the people" of Gleno.
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