| Subject: UN
team wraps up inquiry into East Timor atrocities
Also: UN Investigators In Timor Get OK To
Visit Jakarta
UN team wraps up inquiry into East Timor
atrocities
DILI, East Timor, Dec 3 (AFP) - A five
member UN mission Friday wound up nine days of investigation into
allegations of atrocities in East Timor but it declined to say whether an
international tribunal to try those responsible would be necessary.
"We have tried our very best to see,
hear and understand what has happened in East Timor," said Costa
Rican jurist Sonia Picado, who led the team, shortly before leaving for
Darwin in northern Australia.
Picado said the commission had listened
to more than 160 witnesses and met with NGOs, as well as various East
Timorese leaders, and those of the UN mission here during their nine days
in East Timor.
Militias, supported by Indonesian
security forces, waged a campaign of murder, arson and forced deportation
after the East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia on August
30.
The task of the UN commission of inquiry
is to substantiate claims of atrocities made by refugees to special UN
rapporteurs who visited the territory last month.
Many have maintained the Indonesian army
orchestrated the militia rampage, including an official independent
Indonesian inquiry which has said the military had plotted the systematic
destruction of the territory.
During their stay, the team travelled to
Los Palos, Maliana, Suai and Liquisa, places "where we had
information of gross human rights violations."
She said that what had happened to East
Timor in the week following the announcement of the ballot was "a
human tragedy."
"At this point, I do not think
anybody can say in a responsible way how many people died or how many are
missing in East Timor."
She said every day new evidence were
turning up as "people are just returning," refering to the
hundreds of thousands who had fled or been forced to flee the violence to
neighbouring West Timor.
But Picado declined to specifically say
whether an international war crime tribunal would be necessary to judge
those responsible for the violence they have investigated.
"That would be a decision of the UN
Secretary General (Kofi Annan)," she said.
But she added vaguely that
"certainly we feel there should be a follow up...the more we look
into things, the more we feel the things in East Timor needs a follow
up."
The team is expected to submit its
recommendation to Annan by December 31 on whether the United Nations
should set up an international war crimes tribunal.
They will then report to the UN General
Assembly, which has the authority to set up a tribunal.
"We will accept whatever is the
recommendation of the international commission of investigation. If they
recommend the establishment of a war crime tribunal, then it is a welcome
recommendation," said Nobel laureate and independence campaigner Jose
Ramos Horta separately.
But he also said justice could be served
if Indonesia took the proper actions, such as bringing guilty soldiers to
court itself.
"If Indonesia does that, then it
would be an honor for Indonesia. Indonesia wouldnt have to be subjected to
the humiliation of its officers being brought to a war crime
tribunal," Ramos Horta said.
Picado said the team would leave Darwin
for Jakarta on Sunday for discussions with the Indonesian National
Commission on Human Rights that has set its own commission of inquiry for
East Timor, and with the authorities until Wednesday.
She said the team had been granted visas
for Indonesia late on Thursday.
And she expressed hopes the team would be
allowed to visit West Timor to see the refugees there.
"It is very important for us to go
to West Timor," she said.
Indonesia, which invaded the former
Portuguese colony in 1975, has opposed the creation of a UN inquiry,
setting up its own independent panel.
The other commissioners are -- A.M.
Ahmadi, former Indian chief justice, Mari Kappa, Papua New Guinea deputy
chief justice, Judith Sefi Attah, a former Nigerian cabinet minister for
women's affairs, and Sabine Leutheubser-Schnarrenberger, a former German
justice minister.
Picado previously served on the
inter-American court of human rights, where she dealt with cases from
Argentina as well as abuses in Brazil and Peru.
Associated Press December 3, 1999
UN Investigators In Timor Get OK To
Visit Jakarta
DILI, East Timor (AP)--Indonesia has
caved in to demands to allow international investigators to visit Jakarta
and continue their probe of human rights violations in Timor, U.N.
officials said Friday.
But Sonia Picado, head of the
investigating commission, said it wasn't clear if the visas would allow
them to also visit Indonesian-controlled West Timor, where many refugees
are believed to have been killed in camps controlled by pro-Indonesia
militias.
The U.N. team is investigating
allegations of atrocities following East Timor's vote for independence.
The province was engulfed in violence and
anarchy after its people voted overwhelmingly to separate from Indonesia.
The Indonesian army and its militia proxies went on a looting and killing
spree, burning down villages and driving tens of thousands of people from
their homes.
Picado said members of the U.N.
Commission of Inquiry on East Timor would receive their visas when they
arrive in Jakarta Sunday.
"At this point (Indonesian
authorities) said the concrete plans for our travel would have to be made
in Jakarta," she said.
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