On Anniversary of East Timor Church Massacre - UN Must Take Responsibility for Justice
April 6 - On the sixth anniversary of the massacres at the Catholic Church in Liquica, East Timor, the East Timor Action
Network (ETAN) urged the international community to heed East Timorese cries for justice.
"The international community must keep its commitment to the victims of this and other horrific crimes committed in East
Timor," said John M. Miller, spokesperson for ETAN. "We must continue to pursue accountability for crimes against
humanity, war crimes and genocide committed during Indonesia's illegal occupation of East Timor between 1975 and 1999."
The anniversary comes as the UN Commission of Experts (COE) is visiting now independent East Timor to evaluate existing
judicial processes and propose next steps to hold accountable those responsible for serious crimes in East Timor in
1999. The Commission is to evaluate temporary courts set up in both Indonesia and East Timor to try serious crimes
committed in East Timor 1999, neither of which has been able to hold any higher-level perpetrators accountable. The
government of Indonesia is refusing to allow the COE to enter Indonesia.
"We urge the COE to listen carefully to the victims and explore all possibilities, including an international criminal
tribunal. In February 2000, UN Secretary-General stood in the Liquica church yard and called for 'justice to prevail
over impunity.' The COE must find ways to fulfill that pledge," Miller said.
"The UN must not tolerate a double standard of justice, where only low-level East Timorese militia members are convicted
and their Indonesian masters escape with impunity, going on to organize similar crimes in Aceh, West Papua and
elsewhere," he added.
Several Indonesian officers accused of failing to prevent the Liquica massacre were tried in Jakarta but acquitted. Only
one East Timorese has been convicted in East Timor's Special Panels court for his involvement in the massacre; many
other Indonesians and East Timorese indicted for this massacre and other crimes remain free in Indonesia.
"Indonesia and East Timor recently established a Commission of Truth and Friendship, which is intended to preempt the
work of the Commission of Experts and block any effective steps toward accountability and justice. The truth of what
happened in 1999 is well-established: Indonesian officials - working with militia they created, funded and directed -
committed heinous crimes, including more than a thousand murders, in a systematic campaign to terrorize and destroy East
Timor. The organizers and perpetrators of the violence are well-known," said Miller.
Background
On April 6, 1999, hundreds of East Timorese and Indonesian militia, soldiers and police attacked several thousand
refugees sheltering in the Catholic church in Liquica, after slaughtering several civilians nearby the day before.
According to an unpublished report commissioned by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,
the attack left up to 60 people dead, although the precise death toll is still unknown. The refugees had sought shelter
in the churchyard from earlier militia attacks.
According to the report, "The systematic disposal of corpses... [t]ogether with the substantial evidence of TNI
[Indonesian military] and Police involvement in the massacre itself, the presence of key officials at the scene of the
crime, and the responsibility of those officials for creating and coordinating the BMP [militia],... makes it a virtual
certainty that the Liquica church massacre was planned by high-ranking TNI and civilian authorities."
All of the security officials tried in Indonesia's Ad Hoc Human Rights Court for their involvement in the massacre and
other crimes were acquitted either at trial or on appeal, including police chief Timbul Silaen, regional military
commander General Adam Damiri and East Timor military commander Tono Suratman.
In November 2001, the UN-funded Serious Crimes Unit indicted nine Indonesian officers and 12 local militia for the
massacre. All are believed to be in Indonesia, and INTERPOL has issued arrest warrants for them. The massacre is also
cited in a wide ranging indictment issued in 2003 accusing General Wiranto, former Indonesian defence minister, and
other senior officials of crimes against humanity throughout East Timor in 1999. The SCU in Dili convicted and jailed
one militia member, who had been indicted separately of three murders, including one during the massacre.
Last month, the governments of Indonesia and East Timor agreed to establish a Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF).
The Commission will include people from both countries and is to establish a "shared historical record" of the
violations of human rights before and after East Timor's independence ballot in 1999, recommend amnesty for those who
"cooperate fully," and propose people-to-people reconciliation efforts.
Indonesian and East Timorese NGOs and international human rights groups have strongly criticized the CTF, fearing that
it will institutionalize impunity and is not capable of identifying perpetrators. The NGOs charged that the two
governments have "disregarded demands for justice made by victims of serious human rights violations that occurred in
East Timor in 1999" and called the CTF's terms of reference "appalling."
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and brutally occupied the territory until October 1999. The international community
never recognized Indonesia's claim, and approximately 200,000 East Timorese were killed as a result of the Indonesian
occupation.
In 1999, Indonesia agreed to a UN-administered referendum on East Timor's political status. After the referendum, in
which East Timorese people voted overwhelmingly for independence, Indonesian security forces and the militia they
controlled laid waste to the territory, displacing three-quarters of the population, murdering approximately 1400
civilians, and destroying more than 75% of the buildings and infrastructure.
The Security Council established the Serious Crimes Unit in Dili to conduct investigations and prepare indictments to
assist in bringing to justice those responsible for crimes against humanity and other serious crimes committed in East
Timor in 1999. It also created hybrid Timorese-international Special Panel courts to try these cases. The SCU filed its
final indictments late last year. Approximately 76% of the nearly 400 people indicted by the SCU are living free in
Indonesia, which has refused to honor its promise to cooperate with the Serious Crimes process.
No judicial process has yet been established to investigate and prosecute those responsible for genocide, war crimes and
crimes against humanity prior to 1999, when more than 99% of the deaths resulting from the Indonesian military
occupation took place.
ETAN advocates for democracy, justice and human rights for East Timor and Indonesia.