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)