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)