Rights abuses continue in East Timor: Bishop

Rights abuses continue in East Timor: Bishop

DILI, East Timor (JP): Observers are calling for better
protection of people's basic rights here as a means of checking
pro-independence sentiment.

Legislators and community leaders, including the influential
Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, told The Jakarta Post
that human rights violations still occur in various parts of the
territory.

Belo, for instance, said that last month residents of the
Covalima regency had killed two hooded-men, whom they referred to
as "ninja", on the pretext that they had terrorized the
community.

"So far, the authorities have not taken appropriate measures
in the case," Belo said.

He also claimed that military personnel had killed a resident
of the Bobonaro regency, some 85 kilometers west of Dili, in
January. The officers involved had suspected the victim of
involvement in clandestine activities, he said.

Local military commandant Col. Kiki Syahnakri denied both
reports.

"There were no 'ninja' killed by any local people," he said.

Former Covalima regent Rui Emiliano Teixera Lopez said he
doubted that the pro-independence movement was really behind
the emergence of hooded men terrorizing residents.

He said he was concerned that the phenomenon was now dividing
the community and pitting the locals against the military, and
that there were people who believed that military personnel might
have engineered the whole situation.

Manuel Carrascalao, a member of the provincial legislative
council, said the situation in the long-troubled territory would
improve only if the government treated the people better.

The government should meet the people's demands, return to
them the land and estates that might have been mistakenly
appropriated, and give the people a greater say in running their
affairs, he said.

Another councilor, Oliviera, reproached the government for
snags in the implementation of development programs in the
region, including the provision of funds. He said that a large
part of the funds allocated to the region had failed to reach its
target.

The government had agreed, for instance, to provide financial
assistance to local small enterprises through cooperatives, he
said. But of the 31 businessmen who received the funds, Olivera
claimed, none had been native East Timorese.

"That is a violation of human rights, too," he said. (yac/swe)