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.

Horta said the US and other Western powers should also be patient with Indonesia, and restore military ties with it to improve its military’s human rights performance through training.

“We have to sympathise and understand the difficulties of those inside the country who are trying to change Indonesia. If you push too hard and too fast, there can be nationalist and Islamic backlash that … will destabilise the democratic government,” said Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

After East Timor voted for independence under a 1999 UN-sponsored referendum, Indonesia’s military and its proxy militias went on a rampage that left about 1,500 Timorese dead and displaced about 300,000 people.

East Timor’s limited jurisdiction has failed to punish the perpetrators. An Indonesian court charged 18 people with human rights crimes, but 12 were acquitted and four had their sentences overturned on appeal. Two other appeals were pending.

Human rights groups want the United Nations to oversee an international tribunal to investigate suspects.

But Horta said a truth and friendship panel set up by East Timor and Indonesia will serve justice much better than a normal prosecutorial system – even if it takes a lot longer.

“As much as we want those who committed violence to face justice, we have to understand the complex and delicate transition in Indonesia,” said Horta, referring to the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was elected in October in Indonesia’s first direct presidential election.

“We have been waiting several hundred years to be free. Can’t we be patient and wait 10-20 years for democracy and stability to consolidate in Indonesia? Well, we can be very patient,” he said.

“Indonesia (of today) should not be treated like Indonesia of 1999,” he said.