UN-Backed Court Issues Warrant for Wiranto's Arrest

Producer: Bharati Jagdish
First broadcast: 11 May 04, Radio Singapore International

A United Nations-backed court probing human rights abuses in East Timor has issued an arrest warrant against former Indonesian general, Wiranto.

The arrest warrant accuses Mr Wiranto of holding command responsibility over Indonesian forces while they allegedly committed murder and other crimes against humanity in East Timor after the territory voted for independence in 1999.

Indonesian officials have already said that they won't enforce an arrest warrant against Mr Wiranto or any other Indonesians who are named by the court in East Timor.

However, the warrant will now, reportedly, be lodged with Interpol, the international police organisation.

If Interpol accepts the warrant, it would mean that, in effect, Mr Wiranto could be arrested anytime he leaves Indonesia.

Meanwhile, within Indonesia, Mr Wiranto is being billed as a front-runner in the presidential election in July and observers say that his popularity is not likely to be affected.

For more on this, Bharati Jagdish (BJ) spoke to political analyst, Dr George Quinn (GQ) from the Southeast Asian Centre at the Australian National University.

GQ: "We have to see first if Interpol actually accepts this arrest order. We haven't seen that yet. Personally, I think it's rather unlikely that Interpol would accept this."

BJ: Why is that?

GQ: "Because the kind of charges that are being brought against him are not specific enough to be immediately acceptable by Interpol."

BJ: If or when the arrest warrant is lodged with Interpol and/or accepted, Wiranto could be arrested anytime he goes overseas. If Indonesians indeed vote him into the presidency, wouldn't it be difficult for Wiranto to represent his country abroad?

GQ: "It might be but, in any case, there are a number of countries which Wiranto could visit - supposing he's elected president - that wouldn't implement the Interpol order anyway. The fact that he is president of a country might make some difference to whether the police in that particular country would want to implement the order."

BJ: What sort of countries do you think wouldn't implement the order even if Interpol accepts it?

GQ: "The first group of countries would be ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries. It's possible that one or two ASEAN countries might look at implementing it, but many of them would not because of the kind of solidarity that exists in ASEAN among the members and they would not want to have that solidarity disturbed by having this kind of an order implemented against a fellow president, especially the president of a large and influential country like Indonesia. It would have a damaging effect on the solidarity of ASEAN."

BJ: Nevertheless, an arrest warrant has been made official by at least, the East Timor court. While the United States, for example, has said that it would be prepared to work with any Indonesian president who takes up the position through a democratic process, wouldn't a president like Wiranto with an arrest warrant issued against him because of alleged crimes against humanity, affect US-Indonesia relations?

GQ: "Yes, I think it would. There's no doubt about that, but you have to bear in mind that once he is elected President, countries would have to take a pragmatic view of how to deal with the leader of a huge country like Indonesia."

BJ: More specifically, Mr Bush has been talking about strengthening military ties with Indonesia. Some analysts say that human rights concerns may make the US rethink this if Wiranto becomes president. What do you think?

GQ: "Yes, I think that's very likely that if Wiranto does become president, then there will be much greater resistance in the American Congress to the full-fledged renewal of military ties with Indonesia. Not only in the US, but perhaps elsewhere as well. I think that's certainly true."

BJ: Now, within Indonesia, Wiranto is a popular figure and he has a very good chance of becoming president. Also, he's been trying to boost his chances by choosing Solahuddin Wahid, a human rights figure, as his running mate. Will this official arrest warrant affect his popularity within Indonesia at all?

GQ: "I think it would have an effect, but only a very, very marginal one. Wiranto is representing the Golkar party and Golkar has a very extensive organisational network, right out into the villages of Indonesia and for the vast majority of those people who are potential voters for Wiranto, I doubt very much if the court order in East Timor will make any difference at all to their support for him. In fact, for some people, given the strength of nationalism in Indonesia, the fact that accusations are being brought against Wiranto may, in a reverse kind of way, increase their resolve to vote for him. In any case, bear in mind that in the first round of the presidential election, it's very, very unlikely that any one candidate is going to get more than the fifty percent of votes required to win the presidency. They'll probably have a second round in September and that means that it's extremely unpredictable. But once you have two candidates lined up one against the other - one of whom might be Wiranto - you'll find that the opinion of the rest of the world will have only a most marginal impact on the ultimate outcome of the election."