February
2005
Watch Indonesia! - German Commission of Justitia et Pax - Misereor
-missio - Diakonie
full English version see:
http://home.snafu.de/watchin/Rethinking_Justice.htm
A German translation will follow shortly.
Rethinking Justice for East
Timor
Position Paper on the Reform of the International
Justice Process in East Timor and Indonesia
Written and edited by Leonie von Braun and Monika
Schlicher, Watch Indonesia!
Executive Summary
This Position Paper portrays the failings of the justice institutions
for the prosecution of international crimes, such as crimes against
humanity, in Indonesia and East Timor under the hospices of the
UN and adresses the urgent need for rethinking these mechanisms.
This human rights issue is especially urgent, as the UN Mission
to East Timor will terminate in May 2005 according to UN Security
Council decisions leaving little hope that perpetrators who bear
the greatest responsibility will be brought to justice. The urgency
is underlined by East Timor's and Indonesia's proposal to establish
a Truth and Friendship Commission, which would possibly lead to
a white-washing of the past and the deprivation of victims of their
right to see justice done. In the interest of the victims, their
families and the credibility of the UN's engagement in international
justice worldwide this paper argues that it cannot be an option
to simply close the book. Too little has been achieved, too many
promises have been made. In order to provide advice to UN and state
policy makers the paper suggests four ways of reform: First and
foremost this paper strongly urges the establishment of an International
Commission of Experts by the UN Secretary-General, which is to analyse
the previous achievements of both the Indonesian court system and
of the UN hybrid court in East Timor and make recommendations on
how best to proceed. Additionally, we propose three judicial reform
strategies. In this paper we argue that, as a minimum, the serious
crimes process must be continued in East Timor with UN support and
enhanced resources, but that the justice process could be far more
effective if an international, completely independent tribunal were
established to ensure cooperation from Indonesian authorities. An
alternative proposal is to reform the serious crimes system in East
Timor according to the structure of the Special Court for Sierra
Leone.
Table
of Contents
Executive
Summary 3
I. Introduction 3
II. The State of Justice in East Timor and Indonesia 4
1.
The ad hoc Human Rights Court in Jakarta: Unwilling 4
2. The Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor: Unable
6
2.1. Lack of Funding and Staffing 6
2.2. Lack of judicial and political cooperation by Indonesia 7
2.3. Lack of political support by the United Nations and East
Timor 7
III.
The Need for a Commission of Experts 8
IV. Judicial Solutions 9
1.
The Special Panels for Serious Crimes should be continued 10
2. The Model of the Special Court of Sierra Leone 10
3. An International Criminal Tribunal for East Timor 11
IV.
Conclusions 11
V. Recommendations: 12
Published and sponsored by:
Watch
Indonesia!, Planufer 92d, 10967 Berlin,
Phone: +49-30-69817938, Fax: +49-30-69817938
e-mail: watchindonesia@snafu.de,
homepage: http://home.snafu.de/watchin
German
Kommission of Justitia et Pax, Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 9,
53113
Bonn,
Phone: +49-228-103217, Fax: +49-228-103318
e-mail: Justitia-et-Pax-Deutschland@dbk.de,
homepage:
http://www.justitia-et-pax.de
Human
Rights Desk of Diakonia, Stafflenbergstraße 76, 70184 Stuttgart
Phone: +49-711-2159-496, Fax: +49-711-2159-368
e-mail: J.Brandstaeter@diakonie-human-rights.org
Misereor,
Mozartstraße 9, 52064 Aachen
Phone: +49-241-442-424, Fax: +49-241-442-188
e-mail: Pils@misereor.de, homepage:
http://www.misereor.de
missio,
Human Rights Office, Goethestraße 42, 52064 Aachen
Phone: +49-241-7507-253, Fax : +49-241-7507-61-253
e-mail: humanrights@missio-aachen.de,
homepage: http://www.missio.de
End.
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