FIRST INDICTMENTS OF SERIOUS CRIMES

The first indictments of persons suspected of committing serious crimes in East Timor last year have been presented to the Dili District Court.

A total of eight cases of murder have been submitted to the Special Panel for Serious Crimes and trials are expected to begin in January. The crimes were committed in Ermera, Bobonaro, Manufahi and Cova Lima between February and September last year.

(Please find attached full transcript of East Timor General Prosecutor Mohamed Othman).

UNITED NATIONS PEACKEEPER WOUNDED IN EAST TIMOR

A United Nations peacekeeping soldier from Australia was wounded in the leg following a shooting incident near Balibo in East Timor today.

The soldier was one of two occupants of a Landrover vehicle travelling on a road at Fatuklaran two km south of Balibo this afternoon when five shots were fired at the car. The soldier suffered a wound in the upper left thigh.

The soldier was evacuated from the scene and flown to the UN Military Hospital in Dili by helicopter.

His condition is serious but not life threatening.

The soldiers involved in the incident did not return fire.

No sighting was made of the person/s who fired the shots and the investigation is ongoing.

JOINT BORDER COMMITTEE MEETS

The Joint Border Committee, which was established in September to deal with practical issues or problems of a cross border nature, met yesterday in Denpasar, Indonesia.

The talks between UNTAET and the Indonesian Government focused on technicalities regarding the setting up of the committee.

It was agreed that priorities be given to the establishment of subcommittees dealing with security, police cooperation, cross border movement of people and goods. Another priority is the setting up of a subcommittee facilitating the movement of East Timorese and Indonesians who live close to the border to cross freely for family and other personal reasons, in a so-called Soft Border Management arrangement.

It as also agreed that representatives from the Foreign Ministries of both counties be appointed as liaisons in the Committee.

The UNTAET delegation was led by the Cabinet Member for Political Affairs, Peter Galbraith, and consisted of representatives from different UNTAET departments, including two East Timorese graduates from East Timor’s first diplomatic training course.

The establishment of the Joint Border Committee was decided on during the third round of negotiations between the two parties in July in Surabaya.

NATIONAL COUNCIL DISCUSSES TRANSITION CALENDAR

The East Timorese National Council decided yesterday to discuss the transition calendar on December 12, after the Speaker Xanana Gusmão presented a proposal on the matter on 29 November.

Gusmão requested that the members debate the general guidelines of the transitional process and expressed hopes that the evolution of the political activities calendar be taken into consideration.

In today’s session, Aniceto Guterres, NGO representative, moved a motion to request the presence of the SRSG Sergio Vieira de Mello before the Council, during the week starting 11 December, to "define and answer questions on the legal status of international staff, including any and all immunities provided to international staff on UN missions." This should include CivPol and Peacekeeping Force. The motion was passed unanimously.

The National Council will meet again on 11 December.

--------------------------------

This is a near verbatim transcript of the press briefing given by General Prosecutor Mohamed Othman at UNTAET headquarters, on topics relating to indictments and investigations of serious crimes.

Dili, 1 December 2000

Most of you have been eager to find out what is happening with serious crimes, so what I will do very briefly is to get you the latest information and later we can take some questions.

What we can say is that we are proceeding now in terms of investigations to finalize investigations in five major cases, involving about 140 people. These are mainly cases from April: Liquiça church massacre, Maliana police station, the Manuel Carrascalão attack, Lospalos clergy killings on 25 September and then another case of a series of sexual violence offences and abductions in Lolotoe, in Bobonaro.

One of the main questions asked is: why these cases? The main reason is because there is a specific strategy or policy of the prosecution. We would like that in every accusation that comes out for crimes against humanity, we reflect in those indictments, people with different levels of responsibilities. So you will have – when these indictments are forthcoming – the people who did the actual killing but also their commanders and people in commanding positions, who are responsible for these acts. We think that with these five cases it is a first step to be able to reach the district military leadership, maybe the regional, maybe the Bupatis [District Administrators] involved, and so on. This is how we are proceeding on these five cases.

And then there are other series of cases, and this is mainly related to people accused of serious crimes, who are already detained here, either in Gleno or Becora. We have about 57 detainees, suspected of committing serious crimes last year. And we began already from 24 November to file charges against some of them. So as of today, we have eight indictments, for seven people, because one of them is still at large, who already have been accused of murder under the Indonesian penal code, which is applicable here for offences that have been committed here last year, between May and September.

Judges have already started issuing orders for pre-trials, so we think that sometime in January, at least for these single act cases – of course they are also serious crimes – we can begin sometime in January to try these cases.

Question and Answer period:

Q: You said that you have chosen these specific cases to reach the military leadership? Who do you mean by that?

A: We can not say exactly who. But what we can say is that in terms of the profile of the people that…because some of them are still suspects and there are different categories of involvement. That is why it is a little premature to say exactly who by name, but what we can say is that for at least four of these cases the people who are implicated [come] from the regional leadership, the district military command, the Bupatis involved. For example, in Liquiça we are also investigating the Bupatis in Liquiça.

A: When you refer to regional military leadership, are you talking about Kiki Shayanakri?

A: People who are based here in East Timor, not those who are based in…So I do not include at this stage Damiri [Adam Damiri, former military district commander of four regions, including East Timor]. Not at that level yet.

Q: Have you issued arrest warrants for these militia commanders?

A: Everybody who will be accused of crimes against humanity or other indictments who are not here, we will definitely issue arrest warrants. The second issue is discussions between East Timor and Indonesia about surrender and transfer and so on. But definitely, each accused person, Indonesian or non-Indonesian, will be subject to an arrest warrant.

Q: Would you like to see them tried here in East Timor?

A: Yes, I think our judicial system can cope. These indictments are group indictments and of course we think that you will not be able to tell the full story in terms of what happened criminally without the accusations of everybody in the same charge. Although we will be able to lead evidence against other people, but it is always preferable for full accountability that everybody is part of the same trial. We will struggle for that.

Q: You mentioned that you will concentrate on the people that were based in East Timor. Based on your experience from Rwanda, is that an acknowledgement that it will be virtually impossible to try Indonesian nationals, military or Government heads?

A: It is possible. This is a first step. We have a specific theory on how to investigate those who are at the very highest level and who are not present here. We have to show knowledge and control and so forth. So we think that it is possible. Not immediately. For example we are proceeding with those who are the subordinates of the higher level people. You could charge somebody higher up for the conduct of the subordinates. We think that if we first put into the docks those who are the district commanders, then it is definitely logical that you will go higher up, because you will help the person responsible for the conduct of these juniors, who did a criminal act with the knowledge of that. We think that there are two possible offences we can go to the highest level with. This is persecution, it means basically the violation of fundamental human rights, which occurred, in our view, from already January throughout the whole year. The displacement of the people, the burning of the houses, the looting, continuos intimidation throughout the whole of last year. And deportation, because we think that the deportations were orchestrated, because we know the pattern, we know where people went, the facilities used, the instructions given. So we think that with these two offences, one could really go high up. Definitely for some of them… they were not on the spot, they made periodic visits, also another feature…there were a change of guard also and we think that this was part of the strategy, that some people are moved, others are brought in last year.

Q: Given the lack of resources of your office, do you believe that it is possible to indict people this high up?

A: That is why I am saying that we have an investigation plan. The first one is this one, our next step is a series of four other cases, Suai church, Bishop Belo’s compound, a second Lospalos case – this one really relates to nine people who are already in detention, they are the executioners, Team Alpha. But we can go now to Lospalos at the second level, the commanders of Battalion 745. There was a very strong Kopassus presence in Lospalos in Lautem District last year and so on. So this is the second series of cases. If we are to finish the job of last year, and we are pushing for this work to be completed next year, within UNTAET’s mandate.... I think that is the best strategy.

Q: People have been detained for a year. What about their rights? What is the mechanism to deal with those people?

A: We have to deal with detainees, who are here at the moment. We are dealing with them in a two-way approach. One is to complete the investigations for those who we think committed a crime in a single nature. Eight of them are already charged, awaiting trial. Also, the five cases that are at a very advanced stage, in those cases we have 16 people who are already detained. So that is another reduction of the detainee caseload. But of course we are now discussing also with CivPol to have a contingent assigned to serious crimes, to follow-up the cases of the detainees, because there is a problem in relation to human rights issues, related to people being detained for very long periods without being charged. Although it is permissible here, there are international standards that govern these kinds of situations.

Q: What about the idea of sending more prosecutors to East Timor?

A: We have asked Mr. De Mello’s office for additional support. A number of countries were interested in sending investigators – US and Great Britain – teams of investigators which we can assign. One of the requests that went out already is to have a team of investigators that will deal with these remaining cases.

Q: Does it look likely that the investigations carried out in Jakarta will end up back in East Timor?

A: From what we have been told by the Indonesian Attorney-General’s Office, the cases of the original 19 people they had named and then there was another five…they think that they have sufficient evidence for those cases. They were waiting for the passing of the Human Rights…they had authority to investigate but no possibility to prosecute those cases. So now with the passing of the Human Rights Corps legislation, in the House of Representatives, they are telling us that they foresee to charge those people sometime before the end of this year – if the law is consented to by the President. But of course their court system is still being built up; they have to look for ad-hoc judges, set up mechanisms.

We have some of our investigators now either in Jakarta or going to Jakarta and part of it is to try to compare notes in terms of some of the investigation files that we have and they have. Also to question a number of people there which they have accepted. I think at a technical level things are processing.

Q: How confident are you that Indonesian citizens will be extradited to East Timor? If not, can you issue an arrest warrant through a third country?

A: Yes, that is a possibility. It is mainly a question of whether Indonesians could be transferred here, within the Memorandum of Understanding. All these negotiations must be on a case-to-case basis, according to them. So I think it will depend on the level of the evidence, it will depend on whether they are proceeding with the same person or they have proceeded with the same person before us. You have to queue if you want an extradition. I think that, at least from the discussion, it may be possible. But it is very difficult to say. What is more important for us is that every accusation we make have to site whoever is involved. And because we will have the evidence here, we will be able to know exactly whether their charges contain the totality of the evidence or not. And I think this is where we have some maneuver, when bargaining for transfer and for the charges and so on.

Q: What are you planing to do with militia leaders who are now offering information for cooperation, like Joanico?

A: We have had no discussions with him yet, but what we can say is that anybody who is cooperating with the justice… there is a certain way to handle that. We welcome any kind of person who is willing to talk to us, to give evidence against others, but one thing is clear: everyone who is implicated must face justice. It is not for us to pardon anyone. The prosecution’s mandate is that if there is sufficient evidence, if the person cooperates then it is a question of mitigation. We can ask for a lower sentence and so on.

Q: What is the status of the investigation into the killing of the Dutch journalist?

A: Well, there was some investigation done. You can say it is on-going. But that investigation for us will be in the next stage, the next series of five. His murder, we think, is linked to the whole conduct of Battalion 745. Once we wind up these ones, probably by next January, then we will go to that one. That will definitely implicate Battalion 745, so we want to know whether it was ordered or not. We believe it is part of the conduct of that group. But it is in the priorities, including also the killing of UNAMET staff.

Q: How is the extradition case against Eurico Guterres going?

A: On Eurico’s case: You know that we issued an arrest warrant, we put in a request also to question him. We are informed by Indonesia that we can question him, preparations are being done for that. Of course we do not know if he will accept. But also, from what I understood from the Indonesians, he has three cases pending. Two Atambua-related and the third case related to crimes against humanity last year. They say that they have to proceed with these cases and then consider our request. He is one of the persons investigated for the Carrascalão house killings.

Q: You seem optimistic. Have all problems been resolved in the Serious Crimes Unit?

A: No, I do not think the issue on resources has been resolved. One of the main issues for example is language resources. It is possible for us to continue investigation and indict people and then you clog the court system, the trials do not take place. That does not make sense. I think we must have investigation, prosecution, trials and convictions at the same time. We are operating with very minimum interpreters, for example. We have to borrow. We have asked for 20 additional investigators to continue the same series of cases. Now we are doing one thing, then you stop, then you continue another one. Basically they are insufficient, I can say.

We said to the Security Council that with what we have, the job cannot be done within the timeframe of UNTAET’s hand-over. The intention of the Security Council in resolution 1272 is that this job must be done within UNTAET’s mandate. With what we have now, that is not possible to achieve. We have to lay on the table by mid-next year all the possible accusations – the ten cases we have identified, which will bring us to the very high level of responsibility, then we are thinking maybe three other more, to go the highest leadership.