FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
President Widodo Should Revoke Award
for Human Rights Violator
Committing Crimes Against Humanity
is Not for Celebration
Saturday, 14 August, 2021
Contact: John M. Miller, Coordinator
ETAN, +1-917-690-4391
London, New York, Berlin -
TAPOL,
ETAN and
Watch Indonesia! strongly condemn
President Joko Widodo's decision to
grant 'Bintang Jasa Utama',
one the highest national awards, to
Eurico Guterres on Thursday, 12 August
2021.
Guterres, an
anti-independence militia leader in
Timor-Leste, was one of the key figures
who led and participated in a series of
massacres and destruction in his
homeland prior to and in the aftermath
of the 1999 referendum, in which the
vast majority of Timorese voted for
independence from Indonesia. In close
collaboration the militias and the
Indonesian military committed multiple
atrocities, killing over 1,400 civilians
and leaving a trail of destruction in an
attempt to subvert the referendum. For
many years afterwards, Guterres
encouraged the continuation of the
humanitarian crisis of Timorese refugees
in Indonesia.
In 2003 he and ten
others were
indicted for crimes against humanity
by the United Nations Transitional
Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).
He was one
of only two people convicted of
crimes against humanity by the
Indonesian Ad-Hoc Human Rights Tribunal,
although the conviction was overturned
due to political pressure from the
Jakarta elite. Two decades later
Guterres and the Indonesian military
officials ultimately responsible for the
atrocities he committed, such as Wiranto
and Prabowo Subianto, continue to enjoy
impunity while holding positions of
political power. Guterres' 'career' as a
militia leader continued in 2003 when he
established 'Laskar
Merah Putih', an Indonesian militia
group to counter self-determination
movements in West Papua and Aceh.
Honouring a perpetrator of
crimes against humanity with one of the
highest national awards affirms the
impunity of state-backed crimes.
"With Guterres on such a pedestal,
President Joko Widodo's hollow promises
to pursue accountability for past human
rights violations vanish even quicker.
However, we shall not forget that
Indonesia was and has been enabled by
Western governments with their support
to the occupations in East Timor and
West Papua," says Steve Alston of
TAPOL.
|
Impunity remains not just for Eurico
Guterres but so many others,
including those who have gone on to
commit crimes in West Papua. This is
an affront to the victims in
Timor-Leste and across the
Indonesian archipelago, and yet
another setback in Indonesia's
efforts to democratise.".
|
John M. Miller of the East Timor and Indonesia
Action Network (ETAN) also
emphasizes, "Impunity remains not just
for Eurico Guterres but so many others,
including those who have gone on to
commit crimes in West Papua. This is an
affront to the victims in Timor-Leste
and across the Indonesian archipelago,
and yet another setback in Indonesia's
efforts to democratise."
"Rewarding Guterres not only symbolises
the legitimisation of state- cum
military-backed human rights crimes of
the past and endows the perpetrators
with impunity. Given the political
weight of notorious military agents and
the recent escalation in West Papua, it
also conveys the chilling message that
current and future perpetrators will
enjoy government protection as well,"
states Christine Holike from Watch
Indonesia! "It is our responsibility to
remind our respective governments to
stop enabling human rights violations,"
she adds.
Contacts:
info@tapol.org
etan@etan.org
watchindonesia@watchindonesia.de
See also
ETAN
Human Rights page
Masters of Terror database:
Eurico Guterres