22 December 2004

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States welcomed creation of a joint Indonesia-East Timor (news - web sites) commission on the 1999 bloodshed in the former Portuguese colony, but made clear the necessity of a separate UN inquiry as well.

S officials said coordination of the efforts was the key topic at a meeting here Wednesday of Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda and his East Timorese counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta.

Wirayuda and Ramos-Horta unveiled Tuesday their plan for a joint commission to see if justice was meted out for the attacks by the Indonesian army and its militia allies that left 1,000 people dead in East Timor's drive for independence.

The two men, who met with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) in New York, said their initiative could make redundant his plan to dispatch a UN panel of experts. But Washington reacted coolly to any pre-emptive Indonesian-East Timor investigation.

"I think we've seen both these things as valuable and they just need to be coordinated," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "I think our view is that working together with the UN and with them we could coordinate these things."

A senior US official said while national truth commissions have been successful elsewhere, "we've looked at this situation and we don't think that can be the sole vehicle."

"We don't think we should junk one (commission) in favor of the other," said the official, who asked not to be named.

He said the United States was not impressed by efforts by Indonesian authorities to prosecute those charged in the 1999 killings. "They perhaps were undertaken in the right spirit but they haven't led to much in the way of results," the official said.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in December 1975, shortly after Dili declared independence from centuries of Portuguese colonial rule. The East Timorese won full autonomy in 2002, three years after voting overwhelmingly to split from Indonesia.

They have played down the trials in Indonesia, where convictions over the killings have been quashed, and instead stressed the importance of building good relations with Jakarta.

Wirayuda and Ramos-Horta both signaled their desire to avoid a UN inquiry. Wirayuda said their joint panel was "meant as an alternative to the idea of establishing a commission of experts by the secretary general."

They said Annan did not indicate whether he would proceed with his own inquiry. "He might consider (it) redundant but if he decides to go ahead we will have to study the terms of reference," Ramos-Horta said.