(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 22 September and 21 September 1999** For immediate release: Wednesday 22 September 1999 Press Release Journalist assassinated in East Timor – Reporters sans frontières is accusing the Indonesian army and asking that General Wiranto order an immediate end to the violence Reporters […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 22 September and 21 September 1999**
For immediate release: Wednesday 22 September 1999
Press Release
Journalist assassinated in East Timor – Reporters sans frontières is
accusing the Indonesian army and asking that General Wiranto order an
immediate end to the violence
Reporters sans frontières is condemning the murder of a foreign journalist
near Dili, in East Timor. Sander Thoenes, Indonesian correspondent of the
British daily The Financial Times and the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland,
disappeared on Tuesday evening. On 22 September, Interfet soldiers found his
mutilated body. According to the journalist’s driver’s testimony, they had
been detained the night before, by “men wearing Indonesian army uniforms”
while they were headed to Becora, a neighbourhood held by anti-independence
forces. He stated that he abandoned the reporter, who was lying on the
ground.
Whether this is the work of pro-Jakarta militias supported by Indonesian
authorities or Indonesian troops under the command of General Kiki
Syahnakri, Reporters sans frontières holds Indonesian Defence Minister
General Wiranto directly responsible for the death of Sander Thoenes and
denounces the violent acts committed against international and local media
in recent months. The organisation asks General Wiranto to immediately and
unambiguously order Indonesian troops in East Timor to cooperate fully with
the mutinational force (Interfet) so that those responsible for this
horrible assassination can be found and prosecuted.
Already on 21 September, two Western reporters were targeted by
pro-Indonesia militias while leaving Dili. The driver of John Swain, a
journalist with the Sunday Times, and Chip Hires, a photographer with the
Sipa agency, was executed during this attack. According to a journalist who
wishes to remain anonymous, the driver’s eyes were gouged out. The two
journalists were saved by a unit of Australian soldiers.
According to one Reporters sans frontières source, the involvement of
Indonesian troops in the violence against the press is made even more
obvious by the fact that Indonesian journalists who wish to go to East Timor
must sign a release form in which they accept that “the army will offer them
no protection”.
Since the preparation of the referendum on autonomy in early 1999, many
foreign and local journalists who have been the victims of death threats or
attacks have testified to the support given by the Indonesian armed forces
to pro-Jakarta militias, and have even outlined their role in the violence.
The organisation recalls that Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, which
Indonesia has not ratified, states that persons who do not participate
directly in hostilities shall be treated humanely in all circumstances. In
addition, Reporters sans frontières asks that Indonesia ratify the Geneva
Convention and protect journalists’ basic right to life. Finally, the
organisation asks the Jakarta authorities to give the justice system or
commissions of inquiry the means to find and punish Sander Thoenes’ killers
and those responsible for the violence against journalists.
