East Timor's reguest for right branch office hailed

East Timor's reguest for right branch office hailed

SEMARANG, Central Java (JP): East Timorese's request for a branch office of the National Commission on Human Rights shows that people in the territory mean to settle their problems without foreign intervention, a rights activist said yesterday.

Commission member Muladi said that the rights body would meet the East Timorese people's request for a branch so that citizens can air their grievances through it.

Muladi, who took part in the recent investigation into the Jan. 12 killing of six people in Liquisa, said he hoped the branch office would be able to tackle human rights issues in the youngest province.

"I hope in future we will no longer monitor development in East Timor through foreign media because we can obtain firsthand information," he told The Jakarta Post.

In a previous interview with the Post, Muladi expressed his concern over the fact that people in East Timor often refer their problems to institutions like the UN, International Red Cross and the church rather than to the government.

"Foreign intervention will only worsen the situation because outsiders involve their political interests," he said.

Muladi said the commission was working on the final details of the plan, such as who will run the branch office and how it will implement its activities.

"We are thinking of positioning one commission member at that branch office or have the personnel work on a rotating basis," he added.

Meanwhile, Antara reported from Dili yesterday that the local district court has sentenced a man to one year imprisonment for setting fire to a motorcycle during last December's rioting.

The convict, Atiko Silvano Rebeiro Martins, 19, is the seventh person to have been sentenced in the trials of more than 25 people involved in three days of ethnical rioting in December which was sparked by the murder of a local trader by a South Sulawesi migrant. (har/pan)