East Timor: Lisbon honors ex-US ambassador to UN for pro-Timor efforts

Lisbon, July 7 (Lusa) - Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio will decorate Richard Holbrooke, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, Wednesday in Lisbon for his efforts in favor of East Timor's independence and reconstruction.

Holbrooke, who served at the UN between 1999 and 2001, will be honored with the Grã-Cruz da Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique at a ceremony at Belem Palace.

After the decoration, Holbrooke and his wife, Kati Morton, will be hosted at dinner by Sampaio and First Lady Maria José Ritta, a Belem Palace official said.

In another development, 78 US congress members wrote to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Tuesday, requesting he set up a team of experts to "carefully consider" whether to set up an international tribunal to try crimes against humanity committed in East Timor by Indonesian officers, troops and militias in 1999.

JP/SAS Lusa

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