Embassy Row

Farewell to Moscow

U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow is preparing to leave Moscow after four frustrating years that saw an erosion of Russian democracy and growth in a “staggering bureaucracy.”

However, he told the American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow, Russia’s economy grew despite some “self-inflicted wounds” and U.S.-Russian cooperation in the war on terrorism made the two countries not “just partners, but allies.”

“Looking back, I have to admit that maybe our expectations were a bit too high,” he said in his farewell speech to the chamber reported by the Associated Press.

“To be sure, our two presidents have developed a very strong relationship, and we’ve achieved an amazing amount of progress in areas of common interest.

“But some of the challenges we faced revealed that old suspicions and zero-sum thinking are still strong in some quarters, and they’ve strained the relationship.”

Mr. Vershbow, who arrived in Moscow in July 2001, noted that the two countries became closer through the shared tragedies of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and at the Pentagon and last year’s terrorist attack on a Russian elementary school.

“As horrible as those events may have been, they did bring the Russian and American people together in a dramatic way, and they transformed the nature of our relationship,” he said.

“We began to see the possibility that our two countries could not be just partners but allies on the world stage.”

Mr. Vershbow added that Russian democracy has suffered from actions such as the government-ordered breakup of the giant Yukos oil company and the prosecution of its former chief executive officer, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a political opponent of President Vladimir Putin’s.

“The Yukos affair highlighted a disturbing lack of government restraint and cast a dark shadow over Russia’s legal system,” Mr. Vershbow said.

’Pleas for justice’

Advocates for the prosecution of accused Indonesian war criminals yesterday cheered Congress for demanding justice for East Timor, which was brutalized by Indonesian militias after voting for independence in 1999.

“Members of the U.S. Congress have heard the victims’ pleas for justice,” said Karen Orenstein of the East Timor and Indonesian Action Network.

She called on the United Nations and “concerned governments” to bring accused war criminals to trial.

“Six years of waiting for justice is six years too long,” she said.

Under international pressure, Indonesia finally intervened and allowed international peacekeepers to take control of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony that Indonesia annexed in 1975. East Timor finally gained independence in 2002. More than 200,000 died during the conflict.

In June the House and Senate sent letters to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and East Timor President Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao.

“We are writing to convey our strong belief that justice must be done for crimes against humanity and other human rights violations perpetrated … during and immediately after the Indonesian occupation of East Timor,” the Senate letter said.

“Existing mechanisms for such prosecutions have proven unsatisfactory,” it added, referring to the failure of Indonesia’s Ad-Hoc Human Rights Court on East Timor to convict a single war crimes suspect.

The Senate complained that Indonesia is sheltering “nearly 80 percent” of those indicted by a special court set up by the United Nations.

The House letter recognized that Indonesia’s powerful military might have intimidated the elected government.

“Indonesia’s elected government must tread carefully, while struggling to bring its still very powerful military under democratic, civilian control, especially as many officers responsible for atrocities in the past are still very influential,” the letter said.

• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.