E. Timorese divided over Indonesian atrocities

DILI: A quarter of East Timor's population was killed during Indonesia's 24-year occupation. As the nation celebrates a decade of independence, its leaders look to bury the past but for some resentment persists.

Between the 1975 Indonesian invasion which followed the end of Portuguese colonial rule and the arrival of UN peacekeepers in 1999, 183,000 East Timorese lost their lives from fighting, disease and starvation, according to the country's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation.

For years, humanitarian organisations have called for the creation of an international tribunal to try those responsible for abuses.

But authorities of this half-island nation of 1.1 million have so far focused on reconciliation with powerful neighbour Indonesia.

Taur Matan Ruak, a former guerrilla fighter and hero of the war for independence set to be sworn in as the new president late Saturday, has indicated he has no intention of reopening old wounds.

"My stand is clear: I will not build on the past but rather look to the future to inspire and mobilise the Timorese people " he said in an interview with AFP.

Outgoing president Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace laureate, has repeatedly ruled out the possibility of an international tribunal.

The normalisation of ties with Jakarta is underscored by the presence of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono among invited guests attending Sunday's independence celebrations.

East Timor, one of the world's poorest countries, is keen to maintain good ties with one of its top trading partners. In the first half of 2011, nearly 35 per cent of imports came from Indonesia, according to the ministry of finance in Dili.

"The government is right, it's over. (We must) go ahead and develop the country," said Felipe Newtom Varudo, a 28-year-old musician.

But these economic considerations are not unanimously backed by all Timorese.

Sitting on a bench facing the sea, Antonio Guterres rails against "all these criminals and pro-Indonesian militiamen who stroll Timor in peace, making money and unworried."

"They must be brought to justice, otherwise we will always remain heartbroken," said the 45-year-old electrician, who has had no news of two relatives since 1999.

"The average, ordinary person who had their husband murdered, who was raped or had their children kidnapped and still doesn't know where they are, and had their house burned over and over again, it's much harder for those people to forgive, they don't have a comfortable life today," said Charles Scheiner, head of Timorese NGO La'o Hamutuk.

"It is not up to a few comfortable leaders to say 'we are going to shred the constitution, we are going to shred the law, we are going to say justice does not apply to these big important Indonesian generals because we want to be friends with them'," he told AFP.

Of the 391 suspects indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the UN Serious Crimes Unit, only a few were ever convicted.

Nearly 300 of them, most former militiamen who worked on behalf of the Indonesian army, fled to Indonesia where they live freely.

Between 2004 and 2011, successive Timorese presidents including Xanana Gusmao -- the current prime minister -- and Ramos-Horta granted 287 pardons or commutations to criminals convicted of atrocities during 1999, one of the bloodiest years of the Indonesian occupation, according to the United Nations Integrated Mission in East Timor.

These actions were intended to "close definitively one of the dark periods of our recent history," Ramos-Horta said late last year.

Source: MOLE