Parliamentary commission to study UN report on violence

Dili, Nov. 6 (Lusa) ­

The East Timoorese parliament set up a commission Monday to "analyze and evaluate" the UN report and recommendations on the country's recent wave of violence.

Parliament Speaker Francisco Guterres told Lusa the seven-member commission, composed of four lawmakers from the dominant FRETILIN party and three from opposition groups, would report back to the legislature within two weeks.

Among other recommendations, the 79-page UN report, released Oct.17 after three months of investigation, suggested that Dili's former interior and defense ministers and its armed forces chief be held "criminally accountable" for illegally arming civilians during the deadly April-May rampages.

The report also recommended further investigations into whether then-Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, the leader of FRETILIN, shouldered responsibility and should also be tried.

The crisis erupted in fighting between rival security force factions and spilled over into communal gang attacks that killed dozens, displaced some 180,000 people and left many of the capital's neighborhoods looted and charred. Alkatiri was forced to resign by President Xanana Gusmao in June, after the arrival of some 3,000 international peacekeepers, mostly Australians but also including Portuguese paramilitary police.

In a separate development, Portuguese President Anabal Cavaco Silva and Prime Minister Jose Socrates discussed East Timor with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the weekend on the sidelines of the Iberian-American Summit in Uruguay. The Portuguese leaders, Cavaco Silva said Sunday, had thanked Annan for his attention and help to the Timorese through the years and asked that he transmit his concerns to his UN successor to "help peace and the consolidation" of the fledgling nation.

South Korean Ban Ki-moon replaces Annan at the helm of the world body in January.