Timor Leste truth commission set to start work on Aug. 1

Timor Leste truth commission set to start work on Aug. 1

Reuters / Jakarta

A joint truth commission set up by Indonesia and East Timor will start work on Aug. 1, hoping to put behind the Asian neighbours a 1999 rampage in which pro-Jakarta militias slaughtered about 1,000 East Timorese.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters after a ministerial meeting on Tuesday that Jakarta's contribution to the team would be finalized this week.

"On Aug. 1 it will start working," he said. Wirajuda reiterated earlier rejections of a recommendation for an international tribunal by a United Nations team of experts that recently visited Indonesia and East Timor.

The team said in a report to the UN secretary general that the tribunal was needed to try Indonesian and local militia leaders blamed for the bloody rampage.

An Indonesian special human rights court set up under international pressure had convicted six of 18 Indonesian military and police officers and others charged in connection with the violence, but five convictions were later overturned and an appeal of the sixth is pending.

Indonesia and its tiny neighbor, a former Portuguese colony Indonesia occupied for over a quarter-century beginning in the mid-1970s, announced plans in December for the commission in an effort to head off the UN initiative.

East Timor has strenuously opposed an international tribunal, saying that could damage relations with its large neighbor. The joint truth commission will have no power to punish those found responsible for abuses.

It consists of five delegates from each country.

The 1999 rampage was triggered by a referendum in which East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia after 24 years of often brutal military rule.

East Timor finally became independent in May 2002 after two- and-a-half years of UN administration.