| Subject: AN: 1999 Rights Violations Now
Int'l Concern, says Annan
Friday, February 25, 2005
E TIMOR 1999 RIGHTS VIOLATIONS NOW INT'L COMMUNITY'S CONCERN, SAYS
ANNAN
New York, Feb 24 (ANTARA) - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
said here Wednesday the human rights violations that occurred in East
Timor in 1999 following a UN-sponsored people's ballot were now not the
concern of Indonessia and East Timor only but of the international
community as well.
"And therefore I have decided to set up a commission of
experts," he said in his report to the UN Security Council (UNSC) on
the UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET).
Annan said he had conveyed his views on the matter to Indonesian
Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirayudha and East Timor Foreign Minister
Ramos Horta when the two met him last December.
He said East Timor had made much porgress since it ceased being
Indonesia's 27th province and had become an independent nation on May 20
in 2002 following the 1999 UN-sponsored people's ballot in which an
overwhelming majority of East Timorese chose independence. However, he
said, East Timor still needed international assistance, even after
UNMISET's mandate expired next May.
"The East Timorese government still needs assistance , among other
things, to manage its borders, to form a professional police force and
other important institutions," he added.
Annan also recommended the creation of a small UN team that would
assist the Timor Leste government for a year after the UNMISET'ss mandate
expires next May.
The UN chief on the same day announced the composition of an
independent Commission of Experts to review the judicial settlement of the
1999 human rights abuses in East Timor.
The three experts were Yozo Yokota, professor of international law at
Japan's Chuo University, Justice Prafullachandra Bhagwati of India, and
Shaista Shameem, a professor from Fiji.
Yokota, an expert on international human rights law and other areas of
international law, was a special adviser to the UN University based in
Tokyo, Kyodo reported on Thursday.
The commission would assess the progress made in the judicial processes
in Dili and Jakarta and make recommendations to Annan with regard to
possible future actions over the 1999 anti-independence violence in which
dozens of people were killed and hundreds of thousands fled, according to
the United Nations.
UN officials expressed concern about the tribunals after the Indonesian
Appeals Court last year overturned the convictions of Indonesian officials
implicated, and an Indonesian court in 2002 sentenced a former governor of
East Tinor, Abilio Soares, to three years in prison - a verdict far below
the statutory minimum jail term of 10 years for crimes against humanity.
(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)
Back to February menu
January
World Leaders Contact List
Human Rights Violations in East Timor
Main Postings Menu
Note: For those who would like to fax "the
powers that be" - CallCenter is a Native 32-bit Voice Telephony software
application integrated with fax and data communications... and it's free of charge!
Download from http://www.v3inc.com/ |
