Robinson set to head probe on East Timor

Robinson set to head probe on East Timor

UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was appointed on Thursday to investigate atrocities in East Timor and said she would have specialists on the ground sometime next week.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan formally gave Robinson the responsibility on Thursday after the 53-nation Human Rights Commission voted for the inquiry in Geneva on Monday despite objections from Indonesia which has rejected the probe.

Robinson told a news conference there were many witnesses who would identify the perpetrators of the violence, which included Indonesian army personnel as well as armed militia. The militia killed, raped, looted and burned to protest an overwhelming vote for independence cast by East Timorese in an Aug. 30 UN-organized ballot.

"There are a very large number of witnesses to violations," the commissioner. They know who the perpetrators are. They know their names. A lot of evidence will be compiled," Robinson added.

"I think that is the first time that individual members of the army will be identified in the context of investigations and that itself is a significant step and not an easy step for the country," Robinson said in answer to queries.

Robinson is to submit her report by Dec. 31, after which Annan will give it to the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. The council could set up a UN war crimes tribunal but probably will not have support from China, Russia and other nations to do this.

She said forensic experts and other human rights officials would be sent to East Timor next week after which she would name the leaders of the commission.

Robinson said she did not believe her teams would be allowed to go to West Timor, where she hoped Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission, known as Komnas HAM, would conduct inquiries in cooperation with her group.

She said she had spoken to numerous refugees during her recent visit to Darwin, Australia, and was told about how militia forced East Timorese civilians at gunpoint into West Timor and even to other islands in the Indonesian archipelago.

"I heard alarming allegations that even in the boats taking them, women were raped constantly and that in three camps there continued to be a pattern of rape and assault," Robinson said.

"I know there is great concern that in the refugee camps the militia appear to be in control ... and there is a worry they are even looking for those who are identified pro-independence activist or their families," she said.

Robinson said the United Nations had a good start in being able to trace people because of voter registration rolls that accounted for 98 percent of the adult population.

She was asked repeatedly how valid an investigation by an Indonesian rights commission would be. She said she had met members of the Jakarta group and they were "taking the reports very seriously," including involvement of the military.

"I believe it is very important that Indonesia has established this commission," Robinson said. "I think it is extremely important that Indonesia is taking ownership of the problem of the violations in East Timor and is setting in train a procedure."

An Indonesian team "could go immediately to West Timor with full access", she said. "We are very concerned about the security of people who fled there from East Timor and about the situation in the camps," she added.

Komnas HAM's inquiry would be "confined to the post-ballot period" after Aug. 30, when East Timorese voted for independence in a UN referendum.

The international commission would "begin its analysis from when the vote was first announced in January", she said.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said UN officials in East Timor were already investigating the site of 10 charred bodies discovered by a Reuters correspondent on Tuesday in a small pick up truck in a field west of Dili, the capital.