International Criminal Tribunal for East Timor?

30 augustus 2009

Amnesty International has asked the UN to set up an International Criminal Tribunal for East Timor. Ten years ago, after 24 years of Indonesian occupation, the East Timorese people voted in a referendum for independence. Yet, Indonesian-backed militia who committed serious atrocities prior to the referendum and during the scorched earth campaign that followed it, remain at large. Indonesian and Timorese leaders want to look ahead, strengthen their political ties and forget about the past. But people demand justice. When I arrived in East Timor in the beginning of 2000, the island was in complete ruins. Buildings had been looted and burned in a systematic campaign by pro-Indonesian -including East Timorese- militia backed by the Indonesian military. There were few buildings with roofs left. The UN set up its temporary administration of East Timor in 'tent-city,' a severely damaged building that later became the Parliament. Pipes, archives, power grids and cultural artifacts were destroyed or taken and half the population driven over the border to West-Timor. The island was turned into a tabula rasa, without administrative or infrastructural memory. The UN was given the daunting task to rebuild the country from scratch. Satellite imagery monitoring heat patterns taken by a weather station in Darwin showed the rampage moving from east to west over the island in a matter of days.

From the start of the UN peacekeeping mission in East-Timor fierce debates took place over what to do with those who murdered, raped and pillaged, and those who were responsible for serious crimes during the occupation. According to Amnesty International, 1200 people died in the lead-up and the aftermath of the referendum, in addition to the more than 100.000 occupation-related deaths. The UN wanted prosecution and set up Special Panels for Serious Crimes in the Timorese courts. An international criminal tribunal was considered too distant and too expensive. But the Timorese elite, who had returned from exile, preferred reconciliation over prosecution.

I remember discussing this issue with Xanana Gusmao, who became East Timor's first President in 2002. As a former rebel leader, who fought the Indonesian army in the bush, he was passionate about reconciliation. He organized regular reconciliation meetings between the families of the victims with militia who were given immunity from arrest to cross the border for a few hours and meet the families of their victims. Sometimes, if they were hesitant to come, he would cross the border to pick them up. These were very emotional meetings. Jose Ramos Horta, then Minister of Foreign Affairs and now East-Timor's President, strongly favored strengthening ties with Indonesia for political strategic reasons. Indonesians had been instrumental in obtaining the referendum and Indonesia's continued political commitment was prerequisite for gaining independence. In the negotiations with Indonesia in preparation for East-Timor's independence, in which I took part, building the relationship with Indonesia was paramount. Ramos Horta realized that Indonesia, an archipelago with 14.000 islands could make or break the tiny half-island nation of East Timor. And it still can.

What do you do in a situation where victims demand justice and want those responsible for war crimes to be prosecuted but the governments concerned don't want to? Amnesty has turned to the UN Security Council as a last resort. But the Security Council, in its last resolution on East Timor this year, emphasized human rights and reconciliation, and is reluctant to interfere. President Ramos Horta has reacted negatively to Amnesty's suggestion to create an international criminal tribunal, saying it is up to Indonesia to bring those who have perpetrated crimes in East Timor to trial in their own time. The Special Panels set up by the UN in East Timor have been dismantled for years and those who have been convicted have had their sentences pardoned. It will need a change in Indonesia's and East Timor's leadership to bring justice and ultimately stability to East Timor.