| Subject: JP: UN
to verify TNI's Timor role
Jakarta Post December 07, 1999
UN to verify TNI's Timor role
JAKARTA (JP): A United Nations commission
conducting an inquiry into violence in East Timor, after comparing notes
with Indonesian counterparts on Monday, said that both inquiries had found
traces of evidence that the Indonesian Military (TNI) was responsible for
violence following the Aug. 30 ballot in the territory.
However, no decision has been made on
whether a war crimes tribunal can be established.
Costa Rican Sonia Picado from the UN
commission, after meeting with the Indonesian government-sanctioned team
on East Timor, said that the two commissions had drawn similar conclusions
in their respective investigations.
"I have seen their reports, we have
been talking about that and I can say to you that their conclusions and
our conclusions are very much the same," Picado told reporters.
The nine-member national inquiry on East
Timor, led by Albert Hasibuan, last week accused TNI of having knowledge
of or ordering the mass violence in East Timor.
Picado said the commission's findings and
interviews with over 160 witnesses indicated there were "important
and serious violations (of human rights) that took place in East
Timor".
"We have seen concrete violations of
human rights, with regard to the rights to life, the rights to liberty and
the rights to property.
"There is no question that there was
total destruction of the country and systematic destruction of property.
In some cities, almost 90 percent of the properties were destroyed,"
Picado claimed.
She also said the UN team interviewed a
number of witnesses to verify reports that dozens of women were sexually
assaulted in and outside the East Timor capital of Dili following the
UN-sponsored ballot.
Picado, however, declined to say whether
an international war crimes tribunal would be necessary to try those
responsible.
"We cannot come to any conclusion at
this point, it would not be right for us to come to any conclusion before
we go back to Geneva," Picado said, adding that "that would be a
decision of the UN secretary-general (Kofi Annan)".
The five-member UN mission on Friday
completed a nine-day investigation into allegations of atrocities in East
Timor.
During its stay in East Timor, the team
traveled to Los Palos, Maliana, Suai and Liquica.
The team is expected to submit its
recommendation to Annan by Dec. 31 on whether the United Nations should
set up an international war crimes tribunal.
It will then report to the UN Security
Council, which has the authority to set up a tribunal.
Other commission members are A.M. Ahmadi,
former Indian chief justice; Mari Kappa, Papua New Guinean deputy chief
justice; Judith Sefi Attah, a former Nigerian Cabinet minister of 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.
Picado said the team was scheduled to
meet with Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono and Minister of Foreign
Affairs Alwi Shihab on Tuesday. Before leaving for Geneva on Wednesday,
the team will also meet with Attorney General Marzuki Darusman.
While she seemed pleased to have been
given the chance to compare notes with her Indonesian counterparts, she
was disappointed the team could not go to East Nusa Tenggara to meet
refugees there.
"We cannot go to West Timor because
unfortunately the visas were granted only on Thursday night at 10 p.m. and
by now it is just too late for us to go to there," remarked Picado,
who arrived in Jakarta from Darwin on Sunday. (byg)
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