[JURIST] A retired Indonesian general widely blamed for rights abuses committed by pro-Indonesian militias on the former Indonesian island territory of East Timor after an independence referendum in 1999 [PBS backgrounder] told an Indonesian-Timorese truth commission Saturday that it was "senseless and crazy" to blame Indonesia for the crimes. General Wiranto [BBC profile], then head of the Indonesian Army, said that "there was no policy to attack civilians, there were no systematic plans, no genocide or crimes against humanity. Neither was there an act of omission." He insisted that the origin of the troubles went back decades, and that if Indonesia had "had an evil agenda to scuttle the referendum, there would not have been a referendum and there would not have been an independent East Timor."

United Nations sources estimate that some 1000 people died in post-referendum violence, although Indonesia says there were only 100 deaths. Wiranto ran unsuccessfully for president of Indonesia in 2004 and is expected to run again in 2009. The joint Indonesian-Timorese Commission of Truth and Friendship [official website] was set up in 2004. It has no power to punish perpetrators. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Turkey's Office of the General Prosecutor is investigating Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan [BBC profile] for possible legal violations after he allegedly criticized the country's Constitutional Court [official website] following a controversial ruling earlier this week, CNN Turk [media website, in Turkish] reported Friday. At the instance of lawyer Sedat Vural, Erdogan is facing potential charges of attempting “to spread fear and panic among the population”, “humiliate state judicial bodies” and “incite breach of laws”. On Wednesday the Court voided a parliamentary vote [JURIST report] in support of Erdogan's presidential candidate, Islamist-leaning Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul [official website], because a quorum of legislators did not participate; Erdogan characterized the ruling as a "bullet aimed at democracy" and urged constitutional amendments [JURIST report] that would allow the president to be elected by a popular vote.

The court issued a statement of its own Wednesday characterizing as "irresponsible" comments by both Erdogan and Deniz Baykal, leader of the secular opposition Republican People's Party [Wikipedia backgrounder], which had challenged the parliamentary vote in court. Erdogan later insisted that his remark had been aimed at Baykal, not the court. Prosecutory investigations of political figures in Turkey are often taken up and then dropped. Reuters has more. PanArmenian.net has additional coverage.

[JURIST] A new Pentagon survey [text] of the mental health of deployed US Army and Marine Corps troops in Iraq released Friday shows that a significant percentage approve of abusing and even torturing Iraqi non-combatants, finding that "only 47 percent of soldiers and 38 percent of Marines agreed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect. More than one-third of all soldiers and Marines reported that torture should be allowed to save the life of a fellow soldier or Marine" or to obtain important information about insurgents. The survey also found that "10 percent of soldiers and Marines reported mistreating noncombatants or damaging property when it was not necessary" and that "less than half of soldiers or Marines said they would report a team member for unethical behavior."

Acting Army Surgeon-General Gale Pollock [official profile] told reporters, however, that the findings of the report were not as dire as they might seem, that many of the troops surveyed had seen their friends killed and injured, and that the vast majority of troops had not mistreated anyone. “What it speaks to is the leadership that the military is providing, because they're not acting on those thoughts,” she said. “They're not torturing the people." AFPS has more.

[JURIST] The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday that a racketeering lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation [corporate website] launched in respect of an alleged agreement with retailer Best Buy [corporate website] can proceed, overturning a lower court ruling. Consumers claimed that in the context of a promotional deal, Microsoft had arranged with Best Buy that when Best Buy customers bought certain products, its salespeople would activate trial subscriptions to Microsoft internet services that, barring cancellation, would be renewed and charged to customers' credit cards. Customers were allegedly not told of the trial activations, although Microsoft insists they were advised. Microsoft later ended the Best Buy free trial program and offered refunds to dissatisfied customers.

The case now has been remanded to federal district court for trial. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], has said that he supports so-called "habeas visits" of lawyers with detainees at the facility and no longer endorses visit restrictions along the lines outlined [JURIST report] in a recent US Department of Justice filing [PDF proposed Protective Order] with the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals. The filing, made last week in a case involving Afghan detainee Haji Bismullah, proposed that lawyers only be allowed to visit a detainee once in order to obtain authorization for legal representation, would be permitted only three visits with current clients, and that mail sent to detainees by their lawyers would be subject to review by intelligence officers and military lawyers not involved in the prosecution of a particular detainee's case. Under current rules, there is no limit on lawyer-detainee visits and mail is only searched for contraband, but is not read. The proposal drew immediate criticism from lawyers representing detainees and from the American Bar Association [JURIST report].

In a statement issued Thursday, Harris said the proposal was actually drafted late last summer after a series of camp disturbances but that steps taken since made its strict implementation unnecessary:

JTF-GTMO continues to conduct its operations in an open and transparent fashion. We support counsel access to detainees consistent with our mission to conduct safe, secure, humane, and legal detention and interrogation operations.

The filing in August was made in the shadow of a riot in Camp 4, a mass attempted suicide attempt on that same day, and the suicides of three detainees less than a month later.

The provisions sought in the new Protective Order were considered reasonable at the time. However, we have since been able to adopt procedures to better monitor the detainees and better facilitate attorney visits. Therefore, we would have no objection to the court ordering more than the number of visits that were suggested back in August.