East Timor: Dili protests NGO's publishing crimes against humanity report

Dili, Feb. 2 (Lusa) - East Timorese officials strongly criticized a New York-based human rights group Thursday for publishing on the Internet without authorization an official Timorese report on crimes against humanity that has embarrassed Indonesia.

President Xanana Gusmão "is very disappointed with what has happened", a presidential aide told Lusa, referring to the Jan. 30 action by the International Center for Transnational Justice (ICTJ).

The coordinator of the technical secretariat of the Timorese body that drafted the report, Rev. Agustinho de Vasconcelos, denounced the ICTJ move as "unilateral and wrong".

Prepared by Dili's CAVR "truth commission", the report holds Indonesia primarily responsible for the death of some 180,000 East Timorese during Jakarta's 24-year occupation of the former Portuguese territory.

The ICTJ "are not authorized to divulge an official Timorese document without prior consent or approval", de Vasconcelos said in a communiqué issued in Dili.

He charged the New York City-based organization had "not corresponded to the courtesy" shown it and other NGOs when Gusmão altered his schedule at the United Nations last month to meet with them and ask for their "cooperation and understanding".

Vasconcelos noted that Gusmão, after delivering a copy of the report to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, announced that he would also present copies to "certain heads of government and donor countries" before making the document public sometime before June.

Coinciding with Gusmao's delivery of the document to Annan, Jakarta announced it was postponing a scheduled meeting between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Gusmão for reasons of agenda conflict.

International media speculated that the postponement was an indication of Indonesian displeasure over the Timorese report.

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