Megawati gives green light for Timor trials

UN soldiers have been maintaining peace in East Timor since the 1999 referendum

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has cleared one of the final hurdles to a trial over alleged human rights abuses in East Timor, approving the names of judges to sit on the special court scheduled to open later this month.

The international community has pressured Jakarta to bring to justice those accused of being responsible for the violence that followed East Timor's 1999 independence referendum.

Some nations have indicated a failure to do so could result in a curtailing of economic aid.

A total of 19 suspects are expected to appear before the ad hoc court, three of them are army generals.

Attorney General M.A. Rachman told reporters Monday prosecutors would submit dossiers on the suspects "soon" but did not elaborate on when the trials would begin.

They had been slated to start on Tuesday, having been postponed twice since last year.

However, it seems unlikely they will start before next week and some officials say they may not get going until February.

Rampage

Pro-Indonesian militias backed up by members of the military went on the rampage across East Timor following the territory's overwhelming vote in favor of cutting ties with Jakarta.

Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes, most of which were burned to the ground, and a still unknown number were killed. Upwards of 80 percent of the territory's infrastructure was destroyed.

After weeks of violence order was eventually restored to East Timor with the arrival of an Australian-led intervention force in late September 1999.

A year later Indonesian prosecutors named the suspects they intended to charge, but several diplomats raised concerns that the list did not reach to the senior ranks of the military command.

To date no military officer or militia leader has yet been brought to trial.

At present East Timor is under the rule of a United Nations transitional administration and is expected to gain formal independence later this year.