With regard to the current events in East Timor, is not this the time to be pursuing, by whatever means available, evidence of crimes against humanity as defined by the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague? In particular, should not these efforts be channelled towards linking to those crimes, such participants as the chief of the Indonesian armed forces, General Wiranto? Doubtless there is a long list of other Indonesian military officers, troops, and police commanders involved.
Can the President himself, Bacharuddin Habibie, or even some of his more involved ministers, be excused from the chain of command responsible for the crimes committed in East Timor? As with Kosovo, no war was officially declared, but as in the case of Kosovo, where a military force, either directly or indirectly, was involved in such criminal activities, there is adequate precedent that the perpetrators of crimes against humanity should be made to account to humanity itself for those crimes.
Let the possibility of this process be a warning to all Indonesian civilian and military officials involved: think twice before stepping one centimetre outside Indonesia - and that includes in the soon-to-be-declared state of East Timor. Arrest with no warning should be accepted as a real possibility, in which event, a potentially one-way trip to Holland would seem very likely indeed.
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