CIIR PRESS RELEASE
Date: 18-3-03
Contact: Nick Sireau on 020 7288 8617 or email nick@ciir.org
Church network urges UN to press ahead with East Timor prosecutions
A network of Christian organisations and churches has called on the United
Nations to take responsibility for the indictment of Indonesian military
officers accused of crimes against humanity in East Timor.
On 25 February the Serious Crimes Unit of the UN Mission of Support in
East
Timor (UNMISET) indicted eight Indonesian military officers, including
former armed forces chief General Wiranto, for crimes committed during
East
Timor's 1999 referendum on independence.
On that same day, UN Spokesperson Fred Eckhard said that the UN had not
issued the indictment and that the UN was only providing 'advisory
assistance' to the government of East Timor.
As the UN Commission on Human Rights begins its 59th session, the Christian
Consultation on East Timor (CCET) has written today to UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan to criticise the UN for 'washing its hands of responsibility
for
the indictments'.
'Now that indictments have been issued against some of these persons,
it is
somewhat disingenuous of your spokesman to suggest that they are nothing
to
do with the UN,' writes Catherine Scott of the Catholic Institute for
International Relations (CIIR) on behalf of the network, which includes
CIIR, Pax Christi International, CAFOD, and other organisations.
She adds: 'The crimes committed in East Timor were not only crimes against
the East Timorese population, but were crimes against international law.
They were crimes against the international community and against the UN
itself.'
An International Commission of Enquiry in a report on 31 January 2000
recommended that the UN 'should establish an international human rights
tribunal consisting of judges appointed by the United Nations'.
The Commission said: 'The actions violating human rights and international
humanitarian law in East Timor were directed against a decision of the
United Nations Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the charter
and
were contrary to agreements reached by Indonesia with the United Nations
to
carry out that Security Council decision. Effectively dealing with this
issue will be important for ensuring that future Security Council decisions
are respected.'
The CCET urges the Secretary General to recall the recommendations of
the
commission; requests an independent review to assess progress in East
Timor
and Indonesia to bring the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to
justice; and asks him to consider alternative options for justice,
including setting up an international tribunal.
It also calls on the UN to urge the Indonesian government to hand over
the
indicted officers to the Serious Crimes Unit.
In 1999, the East Timorese voted in a referendum supervised by the UN
for
independence from Indonesia, after having been occupied by Indonesia's
armed forces for more than 25 years. The Indonesian army withdrew, but
destroyed 70 per cent of East Timor's infrastructure in a three-week
rampage during which 250,000 people were forcibly displaced into Indonesian
West Timor.
For more information contact: Nick Sireau, Communications Manager, on:
nick@ciir.org or 0207 288 8617. Catherine Scott is Joint Programme Manager
for East Timor at CIIR.