Pro-tribunal groups greet UN envoys in E. Timor<\/p>\n
Reuters, Dili<\/p>\n
United Nations experts tasked with reviewing the prosecution of
\nhuman rights abuses surrounding East Timor's 1999 vote for
\nindependence arrived in Dili on Tuesday to calls for an
\ninternational tribunal.<\/p>\n
About 100 East Timorese students and activists rallied at the
\nairport as the three legal experts landed, saying a joint truth
\ncommission planned by Dili and Jakarta would not deliver justice
\nto the victims of Indonesian military-backed militias.<\/p>\n
Last month, Indonesia and East Timor launched a joint truth
\ncommission in hopes of putting behind them a 1999 rampage in
\nwhich the militias slaughtered about 1,000 East Timorese.<\/p>\n
The move was also an effort to head off a parallel initiative
\nby the United Nations.<\/p>\n
But UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan went ahead and appointed
\nan Indian judge, a Japanese law professor and a Fijian lawyer, to
\nconduct a separate review, which Indonesia has dismissed as
\nredundant.<\/p>\n
\"In the government, there are officials who have issued
\nstatements to the victims so that they forget 1999,\" said protest
\nleader Xisto Cosantos.<\/p>\n
Banners said: \"We need justice\" and \"Bring the perpetrators of
\nthe crimes against humanity to the international tribunal.\"<\/p>\n
Keen to improve relations with its bigger neighbor, the
\ngovernment of East Timor has rejected an international court.<\/p>\n
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former army
\ngeneral, is due to make an official visit to Dili on Friday.<\/p>\n
Mainly Catholic East Timor finally became independent in May
\n2002 after two-and-a-half years of UN administration and nearly a
\nquarter of a century of rule from Jakarta.<\/p>\n
An Indonesian special human rights court has convicted six of
\n18 Indonesian military and police officers charged in connection
\nwith the violence, but five convictions were later overturned and
\nan appeal of the sixth is pending.<\/p>",
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