Rights group will probe Timor killings<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights
\nannounced yesterday it will investigate last month's deaths of
\nsix East Timorese.<\/p>\n
Commission chairman Ali Said told a news conference yesterday
\nthat he will send a fact finding team to East Timor to look into
\nallegations by a number of foreign media that the six were
\nmurdered by members of the Armed Forces.<\/p>\n
The three-person team will be led by Clementino Dos Reis
\nAmaral, a native East Timorese.<\/p>\n
Ali said the commission will get to the bottom of the matter.
\n\"The people have the right to know what really happened to them.\"<\/p>\n
He stressed that the foreign media reports are not necessarily
\naccurate and are likely to contain biases.<\/p>\n
The foreign press reports suggested that the six were alleged
\nto be members of the East Timor separatist group Fretilin. They
\nwere killed during a clash on Jan. 12 in the Liquica regency.<\/p>\n
The U.S. embassy in Jakarta has raised the issue with the
\nIndonesian authorities, AFP reported yesterday.<\/p>\n
Ali Said made a rare appearance yesterday at the commission's
\nheadquarters, raising speculation about the importance of the
\ninvestigation. In the past, most announcements have been made by
\nthe commission's secretary-general Baharuddin Lopa.<\/p>\n
At the press briefing, he was accompanied by Marzuki Darusman,
\nthe commission's deputy chairman; Lopa, and Clementino, a
\ncommission member from the monitoring division.<\/p>\n
Ali promised that the results of the investigation will be
\nmade public as soon as it is completed.<\/p>\n
Armed Forces (ABRI) chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Syarwan Hamid
\ntold The Jakarta Post yesterday that the military is also
\nconducting its own investigation into the affair.<\/p>\n
\"We've sent a team over there and are now working on it,\"
\nSyarwan said. \"Let's wait for the results.\"<\/p>\n
In December 1991, the government set up a fact finding team to
\nlook into the Nov. 12 incident in Dili.<\/p>\n
That team later concluded that some Armed Forces members had
\nreacted excessively in handling a riot, resulting in the deaths
\nof \"around 50\" East Timorese. At the time the National Commission
\non Human Rights did not exist. It was set up in late 1993.
\n(imn\/rms)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/rights-group-will-probe-timor-killings-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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