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."