WRL Homepage • WRL Programs • WRL Literature • WRL Actions • WRL Employment • About WRL
|
Homepages: | ||||||||
|
Indonesian
General on Trial in U.S. Court By John M. Miller
No one was ever prosecuted or punished for the death and destruction wreaked by Indonesian troops in the ’70s. But in March an Indonesian general was finally brought to the bar of justice for acts of violence committed before, during and after East Timor’s 1999 vote on independence, when several victims of those crimes sued General Johny Lumintang in U.S. federal court. Lumintang served as deputy chief of staff of the Indonesian army during the balloting period; the hearing in March examined his role in the scorched-earth repression. The civil case, alleging that Lumintang was responsible for gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity in East Timor, is the first brought in any jurisdiction against any Indonesian commander for the systematic destruction following the August 30, 1999, referendum. For two-and-a-half days in March, Judge Alan Kay received an extensive education, via expert testimony and Jane Doe’s and other victims’ personal accounts, on East Timor’s history and the enormous suffering perpetrated by the Indonesian military.
The plaintiffs, who remain in fear of Indonesian military reprisals, chose to remain anonymous and filed suit as “Jane Doe,” “John Doe II,” and “John Doe III.” (“John Doe I” is Jane Doe’s slain son.). In detailed, disturbing testimony that often brought themselves and observers to tears, the three plaintiffs testified about murdered family members, beatings at the hands of the Indonesian troopsknown as the TNI, forced expulsions from their homeland and ruined homes and shattered lives. The TNI murdered John Doe I while he was separated from his family a week after the August 30 independence vote. Jane Doe and the rest of her family were forced, along with hundreds of thousands other East Timorese, to take a harrowing trip to West Timor. John Doe II was one of 100,000 residents of East Timor’s capital city Dili who fled into the hills after the ballot to escape military and militia violence. Days later, he ventured into the ravaged city in search of food. Indonesian soldiers stopped him as he returned with scavenged biscuits, beat him and shot him in the leg. By the time he could get medical care weeks later, the wound was badly infected; he eventually lost his foot. “John Doe III” recounted threats he and his activist family endured for years. Police told them that they would be harmed if they participated in resistance demonstrations, and that pro-independence Timorese would be killed if their position prevailed in the ballot. He and his father (testifying via videotape) described the military attack on their family home and the brutal torture and murder of his brother, “John Doe V.” Doe III read from a letter written to his father by one of the militia members who had killed his brother. The letter said that the soldiers had shot and stabbed Doe V to try to force him to reveal the location of other family members. When he refused, they cut his throat, mutilated his dead body and burned it. The letter praised Doe V’s bravery in giving his life for the his family and revealed where his body was buried. John Doe III was in tears when he described how several hundred people from his village watched as the family and U.N. police opened the grave. Only a handful of bones, some ashes and John Doe V’s wallet were recovered. The Law
The suit is based on the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 and the 1992 Torture Victim Protection Act, which together allow non-citizens to sue in U.S. courts for acts—including torture—committed outside the country “in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” Lawsuits based on the same laws have succeeded against a Guatemalan defense minister, against Bosnian Serb Radovan Karadzic and Indonesian General Sintong Panjaitan for his involvement in the November 12, 1991, massacre of more than 270 East Timorese in Santa Cruz, Dili. In 1994, a federal court in Boston awarded $14 million to Helen Todd, the mother of the only non-East Timorese killed at Santa Cruz. Lawsuits filed under the acts can proceed only if the defendants are served legal papers in the United States; the plaintiffs served Lumintang personally on March 30, 2000, while he was preparing to leave Washington after speaking before the U.S.-Indonesia Society and at the National Defense University. But Lumintang failed to respond to the suit, and last December, federal Judge Gladys Kessler found the plaintiffs victorious by default. The plaintiffs nevertheless brought additional evidence at the March hearing, including expert testimony definitively linking Lumintang to the 1999 violence.
Counsel for the case include the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Justice and Accountability and the law firm of Patton, Boggs. A decision on the damages is expected late this spring. For more information about the Lumintang and Panjaitan cases, see www.etan.org/news/2000a/11suit.
John M. Miller, Treasurer of the War Resisters League, is Media and Outreach Coordinator of the East Timor Action Network. |
WRL Homepage • WRL Programs • WRL Literature • WRL Actions • WRL Employment • About WRL
ane
Doe” lost two homes and her son to the Indonesian military. In December
1975 she fled when paratroopers landed in her front yard as Indonesia
launched its invasion of East Timor. She returned to find her home in
ruins. A few years later, Indonesian troops captured and tortured her
(she was pregnant at the time). Two decades later, in September 1999,
the second home was destroyed—and her son murdered—as Indonesian troops
and their militia systematically ransacked East Timor after the small
nation voted overwhelmingly for independence (see NVA, Nov.-Dec.
1999). In a hushed Washington courtroom this past March, Doe told the
grim story of the two destroyed houses, the torture, and the murder of
her son.
