Indonesia: Wahid says, Wiranto must go Fri, 4 Feb 2000 09:24:04 -0500 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - TAPOL TAPOL Report, 31 January 2000 President Abdurrahman Wahid told the press in Davos, Switzerland today that General Wiranto, who currently holds the post of Minister-Coordinator for Political and Security Affairs, will be removed from office as soon as he returns home. This comes following the publication in Jakarta of a press release by the KPP-HAM about its findings into gross human rights violations committed in East Timor before and after the UN conducted ballot on 30 August when more than 78 per cent of the people of East Timor voted in favour of independence. President Wahid said that he would do it 'in the polite way' by asking Wiranto to resign. General Wiranto is implicated in the KPP HAM report for failing as commander in chief of the Indonesian armed forces, to stop the mayhem that resulted in many atrocities and the scorched earth policy that left East Timor a devastated country. If the KPP HAM recommendations are acted upon by the Attorney General, it will mean that Wiranto will face charges of 'command responsibility' under international humanitarian law. The KPP HAM also names a number of senior army officers, district army officers, militia leaders and local government officials for complicity in the crimes against humanity committed in East Timor. One of its recommendations calls on the Indonesian government to create a human rights court with powers to try crimes committed in East Timor, that is to say a court that will have retrospctive powers to try cases back to a period before the court was set up. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign 111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8HW, UK Phone: 0181 771-2904 Fax: 0181 653-0322 email: tapol@gn.apc.org Internet: www.gn.apc.org/tapol Campaigning to expose human rights violations in Indonesia, East Timor, West Papua and Aceh 26 years - and still going strong ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytpac-02.04.00-09:24:02-4613