UN diplomat blames TNI for E. Timor carnage

UN diplomat blames TNI for E. Timor carnage

DILI, East Timor (AP): Indonesian army officers responsible for the violence that followed East Timor's independence referendum in August must be brought to justice, the former chief of the UN mission in the territory said on Friday.

"It is now clear that what happened was planned, premeditated evil, which involved murder, rape, forced deportation and physical destruction on an extraordinary scale," UN diplomat Ian Martin said at a farewell news conference.

Martin, who saw the territory through a vote for independence and then watched it plunge into chaos, also urged the international community to keep up pressure for the return of an estimated 200,000 East Timorese forced to flee to Indonesian-held West Timor by pro-Jakarta militias incensed by the Aug. 30 vote for independence from Indonesia.

Martin linked the Indonesian army, or TNI, directly to the murders of hundreds of East Timorese independence supporters, including at least one prominent leader of the CNRT independence coalition in Dili.

Previously, charges of abuse had focused on the so-called militias, gangs of thugs organized by factions of the Indonesian military to do their strong-arm work.

Evidence has been collected by an investigative team which has identified pro-Indonesia militia members, and led to their arrests for murders around the country, Martin said.

"The information gathered in these and other cases makes clear that the killings were planned and supported by the TNI," Martin said.

"Investigations (should be) pursued vigorously and with all necessary resources to uncover the full truth of the violence before and after the ballot and to bring to justice those with prime responsibility, especially those responsible not just for its execution but for its planning," Martin said.

Martin finished his job in East Timor on Friday, turning the UN mission over to another veteran diplomat, Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello.

The mission will lead the territory to full self-rule, perhaps in three years. Indonesia took over the former Portuguese colony in 1975.

Martin was joined at the news conference by Vieira de Mello and Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, the top leader of the territory's independence movement.

Martin, his staff and about 2,000 refugees shared several stressful nights at the UN compound in September when they were besieged by the marauding gangs who were destroying much of the East Timor's capital in the wake of the independence vote.

Peacekeeping troops arrived on Sept. 20 to end the turmoil, and Indonesia ceded control to the United Nations.

Martin said in an earlier interview that he had "absolutely no doubt" that Indonesian officials expected the vote to go for continued ties with Jakarta, "partly because they genuinely underestimated the strength of pro-independence sentiment, and partly because they believed that the sort of coercive tactics that were being applied would work."

It was UN efforts to curb intimidation that led to Indonesian accusations that its mission was biased in favor of independence supporters, he said.

The UN could be criticized for holding a ballot in conditions that were not free and fair because of Indonesian intimidation, he said, but in that case, "We would have denied the Timorese possibly the one chance they were going to get to exercise their right to self-determination."