Ndiaye still needs time to complete Timor assessment

Ndiaye still needs time to complete Timor assessment

JAKARTA (JP): The special Rapporteur from the United Nations'
Human Rights Commission on Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary
Executions, Bacre Waly Ndiaye, said he has not completed the
report on his assessment of the human rights situation in East
Timor.

Ndiaye told a press conference here yesterday that he could
not disclose the assessment of his recent visit to East Timor
since he is still scheduled to meet with more government
officials today. They include Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman
and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas.

He also said that he has not received certain documents which
he had requested to complete the assessment.

He refused to go into details and said that the purpose of his
visit here is to monitor the way the government has protected and
promoted the right to life. He said it was also to see whether
the highest international standards of fair trial and the
limitations on the use of the death penalty have been respected.

He said he was also monitoring the use of law enforcement and
the obligation of the state to investigate all allegations of
violence.

"I have been invited by the Indonesian government and by the
chairman of the UN Human Rights Commission to obtain information
on the tragic events in Dili and investigate the state of those
who have reportedly disappeared since then," he said.

Ndiaye said that he had been given full access to East Timor,
where he held formal meetings with local officials and visited
witnesses of the Dili 1992 riot, in which 50 were killed as anti-
government demonstrators clashed with troops.

Mandate

However, he said that although he had full access to the East
Timorese, "whether or not people have full access to me is a
different issue".

Asked whether he was satisfied with his findings so far,
Ndiaye said that he was not in East Timor to investigate the Dili
incident, but to provide access to the investigation "because I
cannot conduct such an investigation in such a short time. My
mandate is to monitor the way the relevant authorities are
investigating the alleged extra-judicial actions reported to me".

During his five-day visit to former Portuguese colony, Ndiaye
met with Governor Abilio Jose Osoria Soares, chief of the local
police office, head of the district court, traditional leaders
and church leaders who included Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes
Belo.

He also visited prisoners at the Becora prison there. Before
visiting Indonesia's youngest province, Ndiaye had also visited
East Timor rebel leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao at the
Cipinang prison in Jakarta.

"I need some time to analyze all the information I have
obtained from the sources I have met -- both written and verbal--
to make my own independent assessment," he said, explaining the
reason why he could not reveal or give any substantial impression
of his visit to the province. (pwn)