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DATE=10/12/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=INDO GUTERRES EXTRADITION (L-O)

NUMBER=2-267809

BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN

DATELINE=JAKARTA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Indonesia has declined to hand over militia leader Eurico Guterres to the United Nations for questioning for his part in two alleged massacres in East Timor last year. As Patricia Nunan reports from Jakarta, authorities say the U-N investigators would be allowed to come to Jakarta to question him.

TEXT: Indonesian Attorney General Marzuki Darusman says East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres will not be transferred to the

United Nations. But he says U-N investigators would be allowed to question him in Jakarta, where he is being held on criminal charges.

U-N officials on Wednesday formally requested that Mr. Guterres be extradited to East Timor in order to be investigated by its judicial authorities, which are now administering East Timor's transition to independence.

The 28-year-old leader of the Aitarak or "Thorn" militia group is suspected of involvement in a massacre by militias at a church in the East Timorese town of Liquisa in April 1999. More than 150-people were killed. He is also wanted in connection to an attack later that same month on the home of Manuel Carrascalao - a prominent East Timorese independence leader - in which at least 12-people died.

Mr. Guterres is currently being detained in Jakarta on charges he tried to block the Indonesia's military from disarming militias opposed to east Timorese independence. Many of the militias are operating out Indonesian-controlled West Timor. Since he is facing charges under Indonesian law, Attorney General Darusman says he cannot be transferred to East Timor.

Despite the Indonesian authorities refusal to hand over Mr. Guterres, U-N spokesperson Barbara Reis says the opportunity to

question him in Jakarta is a sign of progress.

/// REIS ACT ///

We do not expect this to happen tomorrow. One possible step would be precisely what the Indonesians are offering, which is for us to go there (Jakarta) without prosecutors, and question him first. ... It is a very good first step, questioning is a good beginning.

/// END ACT ///

The United Nations and Indonesia have agreed to cooperate with each other's investigations into the violence last year that followed East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia. Each has the power to ask the other to hand over suspects.

Indonesian authorities have also put Mr. Guterres on their list of 23 official suspects linked to the bloodshed in East Timor. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/PN/JO/RAE