Trial Monitoring

Ad Hoc Human Rights Court Report No. 8

November 12, 2002
Ad Hoc Human Rights Court Report No. 8
Case or Series

Ad Hoc Human Rights Court

Country

East Timor/Indonesia

Language

English

There is no doubt that the chain of events before and after the referendum in East Timor is a crime. The crime was in form of terror, manslaughter, abduction until it reached the peak in form of. extermination, along with the migration of hundreds of thousand refugees. All the defendants in the Human Right Ad Hoc Court are individuals suspected of having executed, sponsored or facilitated the chain of crimes. Those acts of crime in Indonesian system of positive law are quantified as crime against humanity.

In order to substantiate that the crime against humanity exited and occurred, Eurico Gutteres has been standing on trial. As the Vice Commander of Pasukan Pejuang Integrasi (Pro-Integration Troop) he adopted a very important role in East Timor’s field condition pre and post referendum. It can even been said that Eurico Gutteres was the icon of the chain of violence along with his Aitarak militia throughout the referendum process. Almost everyone in East Timor at the time, especially in Dili, knew that Eurico was free in doing his activities due to the space and freedom provided by the security apparatus. Eurico, with the Aitarak militia, was free to mobilise other militias from Liwuisa up to Suai, Meliana to Los Palos and equip them with TNI/Police standard or generic weapons.