East Timor: Gusmão to discuss atrocities 'truth commission' in Jakarta

Dili, Jan. 25 (Lusa) - East Timorese President Xanana Gusmão and Foreign Minister José Ramos Horta travel to Jakarta later this week for high-level talks to detail the setting up of a bilateral truth commission to deal with Indonesian atrocities committed in East Timor in 1999.

An official source in Dili told Lusa Tuesday that Gusmão and Ramos Horta would head to Jakarta Thursday for discussions with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"The objective" of the bilateral talks "is to make the international community aware that this is the best path to meet out justice", the Dili official said, referring to the proposed Truth and Friendship Commission.

Dili and Jakarta jointly proposed the creation of such a commission to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last month in New York.

Ramos Horta has said that, if the initiative obtains the UN's blessing, it could make an important contribution towards "closing a chapter of history" and allow the neighboring countries to "advance towards strengthening relations".

The UN is expected to decide by May on a new framework to press for justice over the crimes against humanity committed by Indonesian troops and proxy militias around the time of East Timor's 1999 independence plebiscite.

A series of special trials held in Jakarta for 18 senior officers and officials have generally been dismissed as a whitewash, and the mandate of the Special Crimes Unit, established jointly by the UN and Dili, expires in
May.

Some nations and many human rights organizations demand the UN set up an international tribunal, along the lines of those created for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

Other countries, including the United States, have opted to await a report by a Commission of Experts appointed by Annan that is to visit East Timor and Indonesian at a still undetermined date.

Indonesian troops and militias are blamed for the killing of some 1,500 Timorese, forcing some 250,000 into temporary exile and the destruction of 75% of the territory's infrastructure around the time of the UN-sponsored plebiscite in August 1999.

EL/SAS.

Lusa