A-N-T-I
THE TIMOR-LESTE NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL
Temporary Secretariat: La’o Hamutuk, Timor-Leste Institute for
Development Analysis and Monitoring
Rua dos Martires da Patria, Bebora, Dili, Timor-Leste
P.O. Box 340, Dili, Timor-Leste
Tel: +670-3321040 or +670-7234330 or 7367518 / 7237176
e-mail: lanarra.del @ gmail.com or atino @ laohamutuk.org
Website: www.laohamutuk.org
August 14, 2012
To: Your Excellency, Ban Ki Moon
Secretary General of the United Nations (UN)
10 years ago the people of Timor-Leste achieved independence. The
nation was established and our organs of sovereignty were set up in
order to provide us with guarantees in our lives in the context of
the rule of law. In principle this means valuing human dignity and
upholding the value of citizens’ rights as part of the State’s
responsibility to provide protection to the people. This is in stark
comparison to the previous period of darkness where the people were
living in fear because of the pressure exerted by the Indonesian
military and pro-Jakarta militias between 1975-1999.
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The issue of impunity continues to prevail in Indonesia
and Timor-Leste because the authorities of the two governments only want to
improve diplomatic relationships and have neglected the human rights violations
that occurred during the Indonesian occupation.
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Many people were killed, some experienced
trauma because they were terrorized, arrested, or suffered physical
and psychological torture through various kinds of violence, and
many systematic massacres were committed against civilians in a
number of locations across the entire territory of Timor-Leste.
These acts are considered to be violations of human rights and
conventions on international warfare.
Until now the main perpetrators of serious crimes during the
occupation are living freely in the territory of Indonesia and are
granted protection by the Indonesian government. Perpetrators
include the former General Wiranto, Prabowo Subianto and others who
are still in high ranking positions and have been promoted to govern
in Indonesia. What is more ironic is that a number of the
perpetrators of these crimes have been indicted by the Serious
Crimes Unit and until now not a single person has been charged and
prosecuted in court. The UN and the international community have not
tried hard to encourage the governments of Indonesia and Timor-Leste
to establish a court to hold accountable, in a transparent manner,
the perpetrators of serious crimes that were committed between
1975-1999. The issue of impunity continues to prevail in Indonesia
and Timor-Leste because the authorities of the two governments only
want to improve diplomatic relationships and have neglected the
human rights violations that occurred during the Indonesian
occupation.
We were very sad when the celebration of Timor-Leste’s independence
[vote] took place in August 2009 and the Indonesian Foreign Minister
forced the government of Timor-Leste to release the defendant
Maternus Bere, the Deputy Commander of the LAKSAUR militia in Suai
in 1999, without going through any legal process. Just recently in
June (2012) Maternus Bere returned to Suai District carrying a
statue he had earlier taken from Timor-Leste, however none of the
authorities took any action against him. In July last year (2011) a
former member of the Besi Merah Putih (BMP) militia, Valentim Lavio,
was tried and sentenced to 9 and a half years imprisonment by the
Dili District Court, however when an appeal was lodged the defendant
absconded to West Timor because the National Police of Timor-Leste
(PNTL) and the judicial authorities provided no supervision. These
occurrences show that the leaders of the two nations do not have the
good will to break the chain of impunity. This will give others a
great chance to commit crimes because the perpetrators of crimes are
not held accountable. We are very concerned because this will impact
on the seeds of democracy that were planted and sown by the UN in
our nation.
How can State institutions be strong in accordance with the
principle of the separation of powers if political decisions are
allowed to interfere with formal justice? We are pessimistic
regarding the continued pursuit of reconciliation efforts in our
society.
We hope that your visit to Timor-Leste will remind and encourage the
governments of Indonesia and Timor-Leste to hold accountable the
perpetrators of serious crimes committed between 1975-1999.
The UN representation in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) will complete its
mission at the end of this year, but consideration must continue to
be given and responsibility must be taken to provide justice to the
people in accordance with the fundamental principles set out in the
UN Charter.
We ask for the UN, who has always stated that it will not tolerate
the impunity that exists in the world, to take concrete and
effective measures to end impunity for the leaders and those who
committed crimes against humanity in Timor-Leste. The UN has taken a
number of positive and concrete measures to provide justice for
serious crimes, including establishment of:
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the Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) to
investigate a number of crimes and process those who were
responsible for certain crimes committed in 1999,
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the Special Panel (SP) to try the
perpetrators of these crimes (S/2005/458, par. 5),
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the
Commission of Experts who reported on the judicial process
conducted by the SCU, the SP and the Ad Hoc Human Rights Trials
in Jakarta – Indonesia (S/2005/458, par. 1-2).
However, all of these measures were not
credible, because all of the recommendations in the aforementioned
report were ignored by the Security Council, and the duties of the
SCU and the SP were limited to dealing with cases that occurred in
1999, and did not include the killing of civilians that was
systematically carried out by the Indonesian military between
1975-1998.
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UNMIT will complete its mission at the end of this year, but consideration
must continue to be given and responsibility must be taken to provide
justice to the people in accordance with the fundamental principles set out
in the UN Charter.
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Pursuant to these aforementioned concerns, we
the Timor-Leste National Alliance for an International Tribunal
(ANTI), together with all of the victims and the families of the
victims, submit this petition to Your Excellency, Mr. Ban Ki Moon,
the Secretary General of the United Nations, and hereby state the
following:
1. We request for you to use your legal
competence to provide input to the leaders of Timor-Leste and
Indonesia regarding political responsibility for the issue of
justice and accountability for past crimes that occurred between
1975 – 1999.
2. As the Secretary General of the UN, we ask for you to continue to
exert pressure regarding the issue of crimes against humanity in
Timor-Leste as an important topic of discussion in the Plenary
Session of the United Nations, and thereby place pressure on the
State of Indonesia in order to prosecute all of the perpetrators of
the crime of genocide before the International Criminal Court.
3. We request that the Security Council debate all of the
recommendations made by the Commission of Experts regarding the
establishment of an International Criminal Court if all local
(domestic) mechanisms fail to process the aforementioned serious
crimes (S/2005/458; par. 446 dan 525).
4. We request that a delegation be established to approach the State
of Timor-Leste to urge respect for the judicial process conducted by
the United Nations in order to process all of the perpetrators of
crimes who were involved in crimes against humanity as part of the
occupation or annexation of Timor-Leste by Indonesia between 1975 –
1999.
5. The mandate of UNMIT will finish soon at the end of 2012, and we
continue to request for the United Nations to set up a unit in
Timor-Leste to have ongoing responsibility until justice is provided
for crimes committed during the occupation or annexation of
Timor-Leste by Indonesia.
Finally we say thank you for your attention to
all of our concerns, and we believe that in your wisdom and with
good conscience you will consider our recommendations in order to
find an effective way to guarantee the values of democracy,
reconciliation and accountability in our nation. We thank you very
much for your honesty and kindness in continuing your cooperation.
The undersigned:
Secretariat and Board of ANTI, victims and families of victims
Dili, 14 August 2012
Sisto do Santos
Coordinator of Board ANTI
E-mail: lanarra.del @ gmail.com
Landline: (+670) 77179655
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