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Security Council insists Indonesia disarm militias |
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September 10, 2000
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - With pro-Indonesian gangs that terrorized East Timor last year again wreaking havoc, U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said it was time to review whether an international war crimes tribunal is needed to prosecute militia leaders. Holbrooke's comments, echoed by East Timor's independence leaders, came before the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday insisting Indonesia immediately disarm and disband the militias that killed three U.N. aid workers in West Timor and reportedly killed an additional 20 civilians Thursday. He also announced the council was sending a mission to Indonesia and East Timor to investigate the resurgence of militia activity against U.N. workers and civilians on both sides of Timor. The date for the mission's departure hasn't been set. "We have ample evidence that the threat is increasing," Holbrooke said. "We must face facts. The Indonesian military, or to be more precise, elements within the Indonesian military, are directly or indirectly responsible for these outrages." All U.N. workers fled West Timor after a militia-led mob stormed the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in the town of Atambua on Wednesday, killing three U.N. workers and three other civilians. The militias are the same gangs that, with backing from elements in the Indonesian military, wreaked destruction in East Timor after residents there voted for independence in an August 1999 referendum. The anti-independence militiamen were pushed into the western part of Timor island when U.N. peacekeepers took control in the east. UNHCR has been caring for the tens of thousands of East Timorese who fled to West Timor during the post-vote violence. In its resolution, the council condemned as "outrageous and contemptible" the deaths of the three UNHCR workers and insisted that Indonesia immediately disarm militias, bring those responsible to justice, restore law and order and prevent militia members from crossing into East Timor. East Timorese independence leaders Jose "Xanana" Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta, who attended the unanimous Security Council vote, welcomed the council resolution, which also hinted at the possibility of U.N. participation in the prosecution of militia members. The council in February threw its support behind Indonesia's pledge to conduct its own inquiry into the crimes surrounding the independence vote and prosecute those culprits alone, despite a recommendation from a U.N. commission that it create a war crimes tribunal. But when Indonesian prosecutors last week announced their suspects in last year's violent rampage, they left off the former military chief accused of bearing ultimate responsibility for the violence and a prominent militia leader. Holbrooke said in light of the attacks and the prosecutors' exclusion of key suspects, the February decision not to establish an international tribunal or a joint U.N.-Indonesian tribunal "must also now be reviewed in light of recent events." "I cannot be certain how long our government will feel comfortable with the present situation when the inquiries are beginning to carve out immune people, to leave them unpressured, and to allow them conduct investigations which are not going to get at the people really responsible," Holbrooke said. And he said recent moves by the United States to restore military-to-military relations with Indonesia - severed after last year's violence in East Timor - also needed to be reviewed. This week's attacks led to heated criticism at the United Nations of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was in town for the U.N. Millennium Summit which opened and closed its historic session with a minute of silence to commemorate the slain aid workers. Wahid tried to assure world leaders that Indonesia was in control of the situation, announcing that two battalions had been deployed to West Timor and that suspects were already in custody. "Everything is under control," Wahid told a news conference on the sidelines of the summit Friday. "The situation now is going very well." But the council said Indonesia had to do more to disarm the militias which have been terrorizing East Timorese in the West Timor refugee camps and are blamed for the deaths of two U.N. peacekeepers in East Timor recently. Ramos-Horta said the East Timorese still had faith in Indonesia's intention to go after the militia leaders responsible but said council consideration of a possible war crimes tribunal would "strengthen the hand" of prosecutors even if one weren't created.
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