East Timor prepared to wait for justice

East Timor will wait patiently – even if takes 20 years – for Indonesian military and militia members to be tried for human rights abuses during the country’s bloody break from Indonesia in 1999, its foreign minister said today.

Indonesia is in transition towards democracy, and opening old wounds or pushing it too hard for reforms could destabilise the government and push the country into the hands of Islamic radicals, East Timor’s Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta told reporters during a visit to Malaysia.