If the Indonesian government has money to find bones, it should also be used to look for the remains of pro-Indonesian fighters who were murdered in Viqueque, said Eurico Guterres, chairman of the Aswain Timor Union (Untas).Kupang, E Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - The recently established fact-finding team should not only search for the bones of the former president of Timor Leste, Fretilin Nicolay dos Reis Lobato, but also those of pro-Indonesian fighters, according to Eurico Guterres.
"The plan to search is good, but to look only for Lobatos bones is unfair," Guterres, chairman of the Aswain Timor Union (Untas), an organization of East Timorese people living in Indonesia, said here on Tuesday.
If the Indonesian government has money to find bones, it should also be used to look for the remains of pro-Indonesian fighters who were murdered in Viqueque, he noted.
"I also wonder why in the early days of his administration, SBY (President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) had invited Xanana Gusmao to establish Friendship and Truth Commission (KKP) between Indonesia and Timor Leste. However, prior to the end of his administration, SBY has established a fact-finding team to reopen an old wound," he added.
A KKP recommendation signed by SBY and Xanana in Bali in July 2008 clearly states that the two countries will forget the past, and look at more a peaceful future, he pointed out.
Instead of establishing the fact-finding team, which is led by former army general Agum Gumelar, who had once been assigned in East Timor, the government should forthright announce the location of Lobatos remains to save time, energy, and money, he noted.
Untas has planned to send a letter to the fact-finding team asking for clarification and also providing a list of names of the pro-Indonesian fighters who had been killed by Fretilin, he added.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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