UN News Center (New York)
July 27, 2005

Timor-Leste: UN mandated Commission calls on Indonesia to review prosecutions

The Commission of Experts that reviewed the prosecution of serious crimes in Timor-Leste in 1999 has recommended that Indonesia strengthen its legal capacity, that its Attorney General's Office review its prosecutions and that some cases be reopened as may be appropriate.

In its report released today, the Commission recommended that Indonesia's judicial and prosecutorial capacity be strengthened by assembling a team of international judicial and legal experts to provide independent specialist legal advice to the Office of the Attorney General on international criminal law, international humanitarian law and international human rights standards.

It also suggested that prosecutions be "comprehensively reviewed" before the Ad Hoc Court set up to try individuals in connection with crimes against humanity committed in April and September 1999 and to reopen some, as deemed appropriate, on the basis of grounds available under Indonesian law.

If the recommendations are not implemented within six months from a date to be determined by the Secretary-General, the report adds, the Commission recommends that the Security Council adopt a resolution to create an ad hoc criminal tribunal for Timor-Leste located in a third State.

In its recommendations relevant to Timor-Leste, the Commission urged the Security Council to ensure that the Serious Crimes Unit (SCU), Special Panels and Defence Lawyers Unit (DLU) are provisionally retained until the Secretary General and Security Council have reviewed the recommendations made in the report.

It also urged the Security Council to ensure the continuity of the work of SCU, the Special Panels and DLU until the investigations, indictments and prosecutions of those alleged to have committed serious crimes are completed.

If these bodies are not retained, then it strongly recommends that the UN set up a mechanism under which investigations and prosecutions of human rights serious violations could be continued and completed.

The three-member independent Commission of experts ­ Justice Prafullachandra Bhagwati of India, Professor Yozo Yokota of Japan, and Ms. Shaista Shameem of Fiji ­ was appointed in January by the Secretary-General to review the prosecution of serious human rights violations committed in 1999 in Timor-Leste after the former
Portuguese colony occupied by Indonesia in 1974 voted for independence.

The mandate called for the Commission to assess judicial progress made in both Timor-Leste, then known as East Timor, and in Indonesia, then recommend possible future action with regard to the anti-independence violence in which dozens of people were killed and hundreds of thousands fled.

---------------------

Annan issues delayed report on East Timor tribunal

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan went around the Security Council on Wednesday and formally issued a U.N. expert panel's report recommending an international tribunal to try Indonesian and local militia leaders blamed for a deadly 1999 rampage in East Timor.

The experts had submitted their findings on May 26 to Annan, who gave their report to the 15-nation council in June.Normally such a document would be officially published at that time.

The council decided instead to delay its release indefinitely, and council diplomats gave murky explanations when pressed to say who had made the decision and whether the report would ever be published.

They said council members feared offending a new Indonesian government at a time its ties with East Timor were improving.

That prompted 12 human rights groups to write Annan asking him to ensure the report was published "as soon as possible" and its findings discussed by the council.

Although he said earlier it was not his decision to make, Annan within days informed the council he intended to issue the report "as a document of the Security Council," which happened on Wednesday.

About 1,500 civilians were killed, 250,000 left homeless and others raped and tortured when the Indonesian army and proxy gangs and militia razed much of East Timor in 1999.

The rampage occurred after mainly Roman Catholic East Timor voted in a referendum to break free from mostly Muslim Indonesia after 24 years of brutal military rule.

East Timor finally won independence in May 2002 after 2 1/2 years of U.N. administration, putting behind it centuries of Portuguese colonial rule and Indonesian occupation.

Under international pressure, Indonesia set up a special court to hear cases of crimes against humanity stemming from the 1999 rampage. But no high-level officials were indicted and only one of the 18 people brought to trial was convicted.

Annan in February named the panel of three outside experts to determine whether justice had been done, despite pleas from Indonesia and East Timor to leave the matter to them.

In their 149-page report, the experts faulted the earlier special court as deficient and said the Indonesian officials and gang leaders should be tried by an international tribunal if Jakarta did not agree to prosecute them within six months under international supervision.

END