Received from Joyo Indonesia News
Agence France
Presse
July 1, 2003
Amnesty faults E. Timor police force for detentions, beatings
An international
rights group criticised East Timor's new police force for
arbitrary detentions, beating some detainees and a trigger-happy response
to
last December's riots in which three people died.
Amnesty
International said Tuesday that time is short to correct the defects,
with the United Nations which oversees the force due to withdraw from
the
newly independent country at the end of next May.
In a report, the London-based group said there has been significant progress.
But the
police force or PNTL "remains a fragile and underdeveloped
institution which is not yet adequately trained, equipped, or sufficiently
well-supported to maintain law and order in a manner consistent with
international human
rights standards."
Amnesty
said there were "serious failings" in the response to riots
in Dili
and Baucau last December "in which three people were allegedly shot
and killed
by the police" and several dozen others injured.
"There
are also reports of individuals being arbitrarily detained and of
beatings of detainees by PNTL officers," it said.
Deeper problems
in the police and the criminal justice system included an
incomplete legislative and procedural framework; inadequate training;
lack of
effective oversight; a lack of understanding of the rule of law; and the
absence
of an effective judiciary.
The rights
group said some important remedial steps had been taken. "However,
with less than one year before the UN's peacekeeping operation in Timor-Leste
(East Timor) is due to end, time is short."
It urged
the UN and the government of the nation which became independent in
May 2002 to speed up efforts to strengthen the force.
This should
include legal reform; better training: fairer recruitment
procedures for former guerrillas; higher pay; and remedial training in
the
use of
force and firearms and in the rights of suspects.
"Particular
attention should be paid to the rights of children, which have
been violated on several occasions in police custody," Amnesty said.