Indonesia to accept damning East Timor atrocities report

Indonesia is expected to accept the findings of a truth inquiry that blames it for crimes against humanity during East Timor's independence vote in 1999. But Indonesian parliamentarians have rejected calls for those responsible for the mayhem, which left about 1,400 people dead and thousands displaced, to be hauled before the International Criminal Court. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his East Timorese counterpart, Jose Ramos-Horta, will formally accept the long-awaited Commission of Truth and Friendship report on the island of Bali. The report says the Indonesian army, police and government encouraged and even participated in crimes including murder, forced displacement, illegal detention and rape. "Viewed as a whole, these attacks constituted an organized campaign of violence," it said, adding that Indonesia bore "institutional responsibility." "Individuals from the [pro-Indonesia] militia, police, local civilian administration and TNI [military] participated in various phases of this campaign of violence and political repression conducted against civilians." An estimated 1,400 people were killed when local militias backed by the Indonesian military rampaged through East Timor as the then-province voted to break away from Indonesia, which invaded in 1975. The joint-commission's findings will be the first time Indonesia has acknowledged its responsibility for gross human rights abuses and crimes against humanity in its former province. So far no Indonesian military commander or government official has ever been successfully prosecuted over the violence, which Jakarta has blamed entirely on the local militias. The commission, set up in 2005, does not name names and has no prosecution powers. Its work was boycotted by the United Nations, which has already blamed Indonesia and demanded that those responsible face justice. "Those who committed crimes against humanity throughout Indonesia's invasion and occupation of East Timor must be identified and prosecuted," a coalition of East Timor human rights groups said in a joint statement. "If Indonesia truly wants closure and full acceptance by the international community as a rights-respecting nation, there is no alternative but an end to impunity through individual as well as institutional accountability." The report says the abuses in East Timor included "murder, rape, torture, illegal detention and forcible transfer and deportation." The commission found that pro-independence groups also committed crimes but pro-Indonesian militias were the "primary, direct perpetrators of gross human rights violations." The violence was "systematic, coordinated and carefully planned," it said.