E. Timor inquiry impresses global community

E. Timor inquiry impresses global community

UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): The international community generally gave a positive response to a report by a government- sanctioned inquiry which implicated top military officials in the East Timor violence.

UN deputy spokesman John Mills said Indonesia must be given the chance to deal with allegations of human rights abuses in East Timor before the international community gets involved.

"The issue here is whether the national process is capable and willing," UN deputy spokesman John Mills said.

Mills pointed out that the Indonesian inquiry was "significantly larger" than that submitted by the UN commission.

"The ball is in their court," he said. "This is not something we want to anticipate or second-guess."

A similar view was expressed by the United States Ambassador to the UN, Richard Holbrooke, who told reporters: "the critical element is the Indonesian government's ability to deal with the problem itself."

Holbrooke said the Indonesian government was "focused on this very heavily."

He added that if Indonesians were unable to deal with the problem, "they should expect the pressure for implementation of the secretary general's report to increase continually and dramatically."

China, one of the five permanent UN Security Council members with veto privileges in the case of a proposed international tribunal, also noted the efforts of Jakarta's inquiry.

China said Tuesday it was firmly opposed to the setting up of any UN tribunal to try human rights abuses in East Timor.

"China and most nations in Asia are opposed to the establishment of such a UN tribunal," said foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao in Beijing.

"At the same time, we have also taken note of the fact that the Indonesian government has established an investigation committee on the human rights situation in East Timor and the relevant investigation is going on," he added as quoted by AFP.

A UN commission of inquiry has reported that a host of senior Indonesian army personnel, including former military chief Gen. Wiranto, were directly involved in violence in East Timor last year.

The commission recommended that the UN establish an international human rights tribunal to try people accused of major violations.

The UN Security Council has established international tribunals to prosecute war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia but hasn't indicated whether it would pursue a tribunal for East Timor.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has indicated Indonesia should be allowed to try to prosecute those responsible before deciding whether the United Nations should take action.

In Canberra, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he believes President Abdurrahman Wahid would follow up the report made by the commission.

"He (President Wahid) said clearly that the Indonesian government will try hard to put all of those responsible for the riots in East Timor to court," Downer told the Australian Broadcasting Service from Paris on Tuesday.

Whether Abdurrahman will sack Gen. Wiranto is up to the Indonesian government, he said.

"For sure, President Wahid has pledged to bring to court all those believed to be responsible for the human rights abuses in East Timor. And Australia supports the President's position," he said.

Downer also said such efforts won't incite any military coup d'etat.

He admitted that the intelligence reports coming to his office have not so far indicated such a possibility.

"Now we do not have any information on that compared with the conditions in the past week, month or three months," he added.

However in Geneva, UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson welcomed the publication on Monday of the report of an international inquiry into human rights abuses in East Timor.

The former Irish president said the report by a five member UN commission was "an important step in establishing accountability for the serious and widespread violations of human rights committed in that territory."

"The report... sends a message to people of East Timor that the international community has not forgotten their suffering," she said in a statement released in Geneva.

She called Indonesia's announced intention to prosecute those responsible for human rights violations "heartening" but also said the UN commission's recommendations "could provide the necessary international dimension" to achieve justice.

Sonia Picado, a Costa Rican congresswoman who headed the team of UN investigators which visited East Timor from Nov. 25 to Dec. 3, said, "It is not logical to think that an Indonesian court would do justice in the case."

"It is very difficult to think that such a proceeding would have any credibility for the people of East Timor," Picado was quoted as saying by AP during a news conference in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Holding trials before an Indonesian court would "simply amount to the denial of justice," she said. She noted that an international court could sit in either Indonesia, East Timor or another country in Asia.

The Indonesian government has vehemently opposed an international court, insisting, as Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab reiterated Monday, that it is "functioning and capable of dispensing justice."