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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!rich
- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: Timor: Xanana To Be Tried In Dili
- Message-ID: <1992Dec12.050410.2721@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Sender: news@mont.cs.missouri.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Organization: PACH
- Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 05:04:10 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 120
-
- /** reg.easttimor: 367.0 **/
- ** Topic: Xanana To Be Tried In Dili **
- ** Written 8:17 pm Dec 10, 1992 by cscheiner in cdp:reg.easttimor **
- From: Charles Scheiner <cscheiner>
- Subject: Xanana To Be Tried In Dili
-
- /* Written 8:17 pm Dec 10, 1992 by cscheiner@igc.apc.org in igc:reg.indonesia */
- /* ---------- "Xanana To Be Tried In Dili" ---------- */
- From: Charles Scheiner <cscheiner>
- Subject: Xanana To Be Tried In Dili
-
- /* Written 8:06 am Dec 10, 1992 by apakabar@igc.apc.org in igc:reg.indonesia */
- /* ---------- "Xanana To Be Tried In Dili" ---------- */
-
- Remark: Several differences appear in two stories on Xanana's trial, while
- vital details remain vague in both.
-
- UPI: trial in 3 months according to a military source.
- Reuter: no trial date mentioned by the Attorney General.
-
- UPI: subversion charges will be brought.
- Reuter: other charges will be brought under the Criminal Code (KUHP).
-
- On a point where the stories agree -- the trial site is Dili -- this
- places special burdens on defense lawyers. Xanana knows very little
- Indonesian, an additional handicap in his defense. He functions
- mainly in Portuguese.
-
- The surrender of 1,000 clandestine followers probably refers to round-ups
- and conditional releases of many leaders and members of two of the most
- important youth and student groups which supported the armed resistance.
- It is very likely that certain figures from these groups will be produced
- as prosecution witnesses at Xanana's trial and testify under coercion.
- Their testimony and documents seized from Xanana's hiding place will
- expose persons and groups abroad whose aid they have sought and who have
- volunteered aid. The Army for sure and likely the prosecution will now
- depict the East Timorese armed resistance as confined to small bands led by
- three 'secondary' leaders shorn of most of their internal clandestine support
- links and the continuing diplomatic struggle abroad as the work of foreigners
- and some East Timorese with no standing in East Timor. Full Indonesian
- press accounts now available show that President Soeharto himself ordered
- Xanana's trial shortly after he received news in Dakar of the capture.
- -- John
-
- ____________________________
-
-
- According to a December 10 UPI story datelined Jakarta, authorities
- said Thursday rebel leader Xanana Gusmao will be tried in the East Timor
- capital of Dili within three months and that about 1,000 of his followers
- in the troubled province have surrendered to the Indonesian government.
- Military officials have said that Xanana would be tried on subversion
- charges, which in Indonesia carries a possible death penalty.
- "Xanana will be tried in Dili where he committed crimes," said
- Singgih, the attorney general, to Antara, the Indonesian official news
- agency.
- Xanana, 45, was captured by the Indonesian troops Nov. 20 after
- eluding government forces for 16 years. Though an exact date has not
- been set, the trial is expected to begin within three months, a high-
- ranking military official said.
- Brig. Gen. Theo Syafei, East Timor's military operations commander,
- meanwhile said he estimated that up to 1,000 members of clandestine
- groups have surrendered after the capture of their leader.
- Meanwhile, the Jakarta Post reported from Dili that 22 officers who
- took part in the capture of Xanana would receive medals of merit from
- Army Chief of Staff Gen. Edi Sudradjat.
- Indonesia and Portugal are scheduled to discuss the future of East
- Timor at the United Nations Dec. 17. But Portuguese foreign minister
- Jose Durao Barroso said earlier this week the prospect of the talks were
- gloomy.
- Barroso said the signals from Jakarta are "very negative" and charged
- the Indonesian forces had stepped up "repressive measures and intimidation"
- since the Xanana's capture.
- Allegations of continued repression and human rights absues by
- Indonesian troops have hampered relations between Lisbon and Jakarta.
-
- _____________________________
-
-
- According to a December 10 Reuter story datelined Jakarta, Indonesia
- will try captured East Timor rebel chief Xanana Gusmao under its criminal
- law, Attorney General Singgih was quoted on Thursday as saying.
- Diplomats said the decision might let Xanana escape a death
- sentence, which he could have faced had he been tried under the harsher
- subversion law.
- Antara news agency quoted Singgih as saying Xanana, the head of
- Fretilin guerrillas fighting Indonesia's rule over the territory, would
- be tried in East Timor's capital Dili where he was captured last month.
- The military said earlier that he would be tried within three
- months. Singgih did not give a date.
- He did not specify the charges but a senior police officer said they
- could include the illegal possession of guns. This charge under the
- criminal code carries a maximum life sentence.
- But there are other charges under the criminal law, including
- murder, that are punishable by death.
- "A lot of us expected him to be charged under the subversion law or
- both laws," one Western diplomat said, adding that Indonesia unlike many
- other countries made a distinction between criminal and subversion laws.
- Another diplomat said Xanana had a better chance of escaping the
- death sentence under the criminal law.
- "It is hard to say. First they (Jakarta) may want to see what will
- be the effect of a death sentence. But I would be surprised if they gave
- him the death sentence," he added.
- Diplomats say hardliners in the government or military may want to
- charge Xanana with masterminding demonstrations in Dili in November last
- year.
- The trial is expected to focus international attention on both
- Xanana and East Timor's status. Jakarta annexed the territory in 1976, a
- year after the departure of its Portuguese colonial rulers. The United
- Nations does not recognise the move.
- Antara also quoted East Timor's military commander Brigadier General
- Theo Syafei as saying more than 1,000 members of a "clandestine group"
- had surrendered following Xanana's capture.
- Syafei said they would be booked and sent back to their villages
- under a clemency programme.
- He did not say whether they were members of Fretilin, whose strength
- he had put just a month ago at fewer than 150.
-
- ** End of text from cdp:reg.easttimor **
-
-