Lasso says 'violations' rife in E. Timor

Lasso says 'violations' rife in E. Timor

GENEVA (Reuter): United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights Jose Ayala Lasso said yesterday he believed there were
"very grave" human rights violations in East Timor.

But he said the Indonesian government had agreed he could post
a representative in Jakarta who would be able to visit the former
Portuguese colony.

"In my opinion there are very grave human rights violations in
East Timor. We could see that from the general environment... and
from conversations I had with several groups," Ayala Lasso told a
news conference.

Ayala Lasso, a former Ecuadorean diplomat, made an official
five-day visit to Indonesia earlier this month and spent two days
in East Timor where he saw local leaders.

He was allowed to visit East Timorese separatist leader Jose
Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, serving a 20-year-sentence for leading
an armed rebellion against the Indonesian rule in East Timor.

He said Xanana gave him a message, whose contents who declined
to reveal, for U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who
is sponsoring talks between Indonesia and Portugal and between
Timorese factions on the area's future.

Ayala Lasso said he had asked the Indonesian government to
allow him to open an office in Dili, but had been told this would
run against Jakarta's stand on East Timor's status -- that it is
now part of Indonesia.

Instead, he said, the Indonesian authorities agreed after some
discussion to an office in Jakarta and promised that the official
who would run it would be able to travel to Dili and carry out
investigations without interference.

The government had also pledged that it would allow non-
governmental organizations from outside to carry out their own
inquiries inside Indonesia on human rights, he added. He did not
say which groups this might apply to.

Ayala Lasso said he felt the Indonesian authorities had taken
some steps that were positive on the overall rights situation in
the country, including the establishment of a national commission
on human rights.

He said he had been assured by reliable people in the legal
profession that the commission was independent, but it suffered
from a shortage of funds. He had also urged the government to
pass a law giving it a firm juridical basis.

The UN official said demonstrations against him in Jakarta,
both when he visited Gusmao when he went to parliament, had not
unduly concerned him although on one occasion clearly aggressive
protesters surrounded his car and banged on it. "The police were
more or less there. I never felt in danger," he added.