E. Timor's UN administrator seeks forensic help
E. Timor's UN administrator seeks forensic help
DILI (AFP): UN administrators appealed on Sunday to visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard to send forensic experts to East Timor to speed up investigations into the atrocities committed here.
"We need forensic capacity to look at all the bodies which may be or have been exhumed," the United Nations chief administrator here Sergio Vieira de Mello said after meeting Howard, at the start of his brief visit.
Howard is the first head of government to visit the territory since it was engulfed in a wave of terror unleashed by pro- Jakarta militias backed by the Indonesian military after the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to sever ties with Indonesia.
Scores of bodies have been found or exhumed since the UN- sanctioned International Force for East Timor (Interfet) was deployed in the former Portuguese colony in September to quell the violence.
But de Mello admitted that with much of the territory in ruins and all the former Indonesian civil servants having fled: "It is not easy, we need pathologists, we need a morgue here in Dili."
Speaking to reporters outside the Australian army hospital, Howard said he would consider de Mello's request. "We will be very keen to do what we can in a number of areas. Australia has already given very, very high amounts of aid as well as making a major military contribution to the Interfet force," Howard said.
The 7,500-strong Interfet force is led by Australian commander Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove and includes more than 4,000 Australian soldiers.
"We will be constructive and helpful but Australia cannot do everything," Howard said after meeting Nobel laureate Dili Bishop Carlos Ximese Felipe Belo at the airport before flying home later on Sunday.
De Mello said he thanked Howard for the lead role Australia has played in the force. And there were words of praise for the Australian troops from Howard.
"There is peace and stability, there is smile on the face of the people of East Timor and I am very proud of what Australian men and women have done," Howard told journalists.
"Remember, it was a dangerous unchartered operation when it started. It is easy to forget that it was a mission fraught with a great deal of danger back on the 20th of September. I won't forget that," Howard said.
The militias and their military backers waged a campaign of murder, arson, rape and forced deportations after the results of the UN-organized Aug. 30 ballot were announced.
In the latest find, an independent Indonesian rights inquiry team exhumed 26 bodies from graves in West Timor on Thursday believed to be the victims of a church massacre in Suai port southwest of here.
De Mello, a Brazilian who has led the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) since Indonesia handed over the territory on Oct. 25, also asked Australia to help set up customs and immigration services, describing their introduction as "a top priority".
Howard said after the 45-minute meeting that Australia will commit "substantial resources" to the long-term rebuilding of East Timor.
"But I'm not going to try and put a figure on that because I don't think anybody quite knows how far it goes," the prime minister said.
"I've had a very constructive discussion with the UNTAET leader, Mr de Mello, and we're well on track for the handover to a blue helmet operation," Howard said.
He pledged between 1,500 and 2,000 Australian troops for a UN force which will take over security from Interfet early next year.
UNTAET will administer the territory until an independent state is formed in two to three years.
Howard's visit coincided with a declaration of independence for East Timor on Nov. 28, 1975 by the Fretilin political arm of the resistance fighters. Ten days later on Dec. 7, 1975 Indonesia invaded the half-island, and annexed it the following year.