Also - Tempo: Wiranto Appeared on the Initial Suspect List

Monday September 4 5:49 AM ET Indonesia Says Wiranto May Still Face E.Timor Scrutiny

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's Attorney-General said on Monday former military chief Wiranto may yet be formally declared a suspect in the probe into the bloodshed that followed last year's East Timor independence vote.

Indonesia on Friday sparked demands for tougher action when it named three generals among 19 suspects, but did not include Wiranto or key leaders of the pro-Jakarta militias that carried out the violence with the military's help.

Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman said on Monday he had so far only named ``concrete actors'' involved in the field.

``Further investigations, from the aspect of the law, will disclose where there is accountability of policy... whether it was deliberate or negligence,'' he told reporters when asked why Wiranto was not named on Friday.

``There is another aspect of human right violations. It is the aspect of accountability of policy. Human rights violations basically can be avoided if policies are taken to avoid that.''

Jakarta is under strong pressure to bring those responsible for the violence to account, or risk an international war crimes tribunal.

Wiranto was in charge of Indonesia's armed forces when pro-Jakarta militias backed by Indonesian troops and police went on a rampage in East Timor after last year's August 30 vote to end more than two decades of harsh Indonesian military rule.

The majority of East Timorese were forced from their homes and much of the impoverished territory's infrastructure laid to waste in the violence in which hundreds are believed to have died.

Multinational troops were eventually sent in to restore peace in the former Portuguese colony which Indonesia invaded in 1975, but whose rule was never widely internationally accepted.

The territory is now under United Nations administration as it moves toward the election of a government late next year and independence.

The three generals formally declared suspects all had direct responsibility for East Timor at the time.

They are Major-General Adam Damiri, who headed the military region which included East Timor, the territory's then-military chief, Brigadier-General Tono Suratman, and its then-police chief, Brigadier-General Timbul Silaen.

--- Wiranto Appeared on the Initial Suspect List 4 Sep 2000 11:2:39 WIB

TEMPO Interaktif, Jakarta:The Secretary of the East Timor Human Rights Violations Joint-Investigation Team, Adrianus Meliala, confirmed that the investigation team list of initial suspects included the name of Gen. (Ret.) Wiranto. In a conversation with TEMPO Interaktif, on Friday night, September 1, Meliala expressed his astonishment at the exclusion of Wiranto's name from the list when the Attorney General's Office (AG's Office) released the list to the public yesterday morning.

According to Meliala, there are three possiblities for Wiranto's exclusion. First, the AG's Office may not have paid attention to the team recommendations. Second, the AG's Office probably accepted only a portion of the 30 recommended names. Finally, the AG's Office had some reason for not publicizing all the recommended names.

"Perhaps the Attorney General has a special strategy to buy time or protect certain people. In this way, no one feels disgraced," Meliala asserted. The Attorney General, he added, had several opportunities to publicize the agendas used during the investigation process. But he never clarified his strategy. "I suppose there will be another announcement on the excluded names. Maybe that list will be announced not long before the investigation is ended. At that time, the trial will have already started," Meliala said. "Therefore, if someone feels disgraced, the process will almost be over."

During the investigation and recommendation process, Meliala said, the expert and prosecutor teams reached an agreement. They would only differ on matters of law. Both sides delivered five suggestions regarding legal alternatives to the Attorney General. "The Government Regulation (Perpu) No. 1/1999 is actually only one alternative. But it appears the Attorney General prefers this alternative," Meliala stated. The other four alternatives include a national trial based on international law, combining national and international legal statutes, adopting only the international law system, or delaying the announcement of the initial suspect list and urging the House of Representatives (DPR) to immediately create a new Human Rights Adjudication Law.

But Meliala also cited the continued rejection of the Perpu Law by the DPR. After the first rejection, the Perpu can only be extended twice. The first extension will occur on July 31, 2000 and the second on October 17. "So, don't pass the deadline," he stated. If the deadline passes without a new law, the Attorney General must issue a Decision to Halt the Case Investigation (SP3) or dismiss the case entirely. "We're running out of time," Meliala warned.

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