DATE=12/24/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA / EAST TIMOR (L)
NUMBER=2-257460
BYLINE=FRED COOPER
DATELINE=HONG KONG
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Indonesia's former military commander has
denied his troops were involved in the anti-
independence rampage earlier this year in East Timor.
Fred Cooper reports from the VOA Asia News Center,
General Wiranto testified before an Indonesian
government-appointed panel investigating human rights
abuses in the territory.
TEXT: In the face of mounting allegations against
Indonesia's military, the country's former armed
forces chief said he had come to give an explanation.
Following the closed-door session of Indonesia's Human
Rights Commission, General Wiranto told reporters the
armed forces were not involved in crimes against
humanity, genocide, or arson.
The Indonesian military is accused of supporting the
anti-independence militias in East Timor that engaged
in a spree of killing and destruction. The rampage
throughout the former Portuguese territory followed
East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence at the
end of August. Hundreds were killed and hundreds of
thousands made homeless in the violence.
East Timorese resistance leaders, Indonesian human
rights investigators and a U-N investigative team have
all accused the military of human rights abuses.
General Wiranto and other senior military officers are
under fire for allegedly either instigating the
violence or knowing about it and doing nothing to stop
it.
But General Wiranto - who is now a senior minister in
Indonesia's new government - told reporters there was
absolutely no policy or planning for the destruction
of East Timor. (SIGNED)
NEB/FC/KL
24-Dec-1999 08:35 AM EDT (24-Dec-1999 1335 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
