| Subject: Detik: Indonesia, East Timor to
form "truth and friendship" commission
Indonesia, East Timor to form "truth and friendship" commission January 20, 2005 5:13am Text of report by Muhammmad Atqa, carried by Indonesian Detikcom web site on 19 January Jakarta: Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to form a Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) at the end of January 2005. This commission is an attempt to resolve the 1999 human rights violation cases that occurred in Timor Leste through reconciliation. "We had no other choice as the agreement occurred at the highest level between the presidents, the vice-president and ministers to continue with the previously agreed CTF concept. We immediately completed the terms of reference [last three words in English] which we [then] presented to the UN secretary-general and other countries," explained the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hasan Wirayudha at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jl Pejambon, Jakarta on Wednesday (19 January). What about the UN's approach to form a Commission of Experts? "Indonesia and East Timor have already explained to the UN secretary-general and other countries that the CTF is an alternative solution that came from both countries. So, it is not just a commission that will run in parallel with the Commission of Experts," said Foreign Minister Wirayudha. According to Wirayudha, the UN can not force them to agree if a Commission of Experts is formed to investigate the human rights cases in East Timor. "I can not imagine that a Commission of Experts would be tasked to review the entire process of handling the gross human rights cases if it was not supported by Indonesia and East Timor. So what can they do?" said Foreign Minister Wirayudha. "Apparently the UN secretary-general is being more realistic because at the time he met Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) on 6 January 2005 in Jakarta, the secretary-general also said he felt Indonesia was facing a lot more humanitarian missions that will result in delaying the formation of a Commission of Experts. Hopefully they will delay the Commission of Experts' tasks until after the CTF has finished its job," he continued. Source: Detikcom web site, Jakarta, in Indonesian 19 Jan 05 BBC Monitoring Back to January 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/ |