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Subject: UN report says Timor at human rights crossroads
also: Herald Sun: Timor abuse cases on rise
Radio Australia August 21, 2008 -transcript-
UN report says Timor at human rights crossroads
East Timor is at a
human rights crossroads, says a new report by the United Nations. The
U-N says in the last six months there's been a notable increase in
complaints of human rights
abuses against East Timor's national police.
Presenter: Stephanie March
Speaker: Mark Green,
NGO director; Louis Gentile, chief of UN Human Rights and
Transitional Justice
Office UN in East Timor.
GREEN: One officer, who was quite thin, approached the motor cyclist
quite vehemently. The motor cyclist began to cower. Then the PNTL
officer began to hit the motor cyclist with his fists. Several
vicious-looking blows were successfully aimed at his chest and abdomen.
MARCH: Mark Green is the Country Director of Caritas East Timor, and
resident of Dili.
GREEN: I slowed my vehicle down to a crawling pace and held down my horn
for about 5-6 seconds as I drew adjacent with the motor cyclist but the
PNTL officer kept on beating him.
MARCH: He witnessed this incident in May this year, while driving
through the streets of the capital, in broad daylight.
It occurred during the state of siege and joint police and
military operation
that was put in place following the rebel attack on the president in
February this year.
And as Louis Gentile, chief of Human Rights and
Transitional Justice
for the UN in East Timor says, the incident witnessed by Mark Green was
by no means isolated.
GENTILE: There were 58 allegations relating to the security forces and
Joint Command during the state of siege. Most of those violations were
involving ill treatment and beating of citizens. Some of them involved
death threats, in fact there were six death threats.
MARCH: Responsibility for policing in East Timor was put in the hands of
the UN following the crisis of 2006, but the UN is now gradually trying
to return that role to local forces.
During the joint operation, hundreds of police officers were pulled out
of their UN mentoring program, considered a vital part of preparing
local officers to operate without international assistance and were sent
to hunt for the rebels.
Another group of police who operate largely outside the supervision of
the UN is the PNTL Task
Force.
Established in December 2007, the 100-strong Dili-based task force has
been credited with an overall decrease in
violent crime, but
UN monitoring of the force shows an increase in alleged cases of use of
excessive force,
unlawful searches of houses and abusive behavior, to achieve that goal.
While the UN says it's pleased with the response from the government
intent to deal with human
rights problems, there are concerns their message may not be
filtering down to forces on the ground.
GENTILE: I think really there are two obstacles. One is process and one
is will. The one with process involves ensuring that proper mechanisms
exist within security forces to ensure people are held accountable. In
the case of the PNTL those mechanisms are in place on
paper, but there is still a problem of will. We know of cases for
example where officers are recommended for suspension but the suspension
is not being executed.
He says in the case of the military, the problem is there is no formal
process for accountability.
GENTILE: Again commanders have given assurances there will be
accountability. Maybe it is too early to judge, but it has been a
significant period of time already and we think it is legitimate to ask
for those results, and we have not yet seen those results.
Investigations into 44 violations reported to the Provadore for Human
Rights are expected to be completed by October, and if deemed necessary
recommendations will be sent to the
Prosecutor
General's office for further action.
The only problem there is that the Prosecutor General's office currently
has a back-log of 4,700 cases.
With these hurdles in mind Louis Gentile says that right now,
East Timor is at a
human rights cross road.
GENTILE: It would be easy to take the wrong road and also relatively
achievable and realistic to take the right road without too much pain
for those concerned.
MARCH: The upside, he says, is that East Timor has two key factors that
other countries in the same situation, don't: international support and
financial resources.
GENTILE: And you add to that some of the basic framework you need that
doesn't exisit in other dev countires: you have a constitution that is
one of the best in the world in terms of incorporating
international human
rights principals. You have a democratically elected gov, and a
vocal opposition, and a functioning parliament.
MARCH: But he says the key is to be patient.
GENTILE: These are things that take years to achieve, building a proper
justice system for example and rule of law, doesn't take three years or
five years it takes 20 years.
---------------------------------
Melbourne Herald-Sun Friday, August 22, 1008
Timor abuse cases on rise
DILI -- Complaints
of human rights abuses by East Timor's fledgling national police have
shown a ``notable increase'' over the past year, the United Nations said
in a report yesterday.
The UN report said progress on rights since independence from
Indonesia in 2002
had been tempered by abuses by the security forces and judicial
shortcomings.
The UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste report said a new national
police taskforce created in the capital, Dili, in December had had a
significant impact on crime. But there had also been a sharp rise in
complaints about abuses by security forces, it said.
The task force had been accused of ``excessive
use of force and ill-treatment during arrest, unlawful searches
of houses and abusive behaviour,'' it said.
It welcomed increases in the number of judges but said there was a
backlog of about 4700 criminal cases.
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