UN panel delays approval of East Timor probe

UN panel delays approval of East Timor probe

UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): After discussions, meetings and memos, a key United Nations body put off until Nov. 15 approval of a crucial probe into alleged atrocities in East Timor.

None of the experts appointed by Mary Robinson, the top UN Human Rights official, will go to the territory until the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the parent body of the 53- nation Geneva-based UN Commission on Human Rights, endorses the inquiry.

ECOSOC, made up of 54 member nations, met on Tuesday in private consultations to consider a Sept. 27 decision to initiate the probe.

But several delegates were unsure why the session was called as no vote was taken to move up a formal meeting scheduled for Nov. 15.

Lesotho Ambassador Percy Metsing Mangoaela, who chaired the session, told Reuters some delegates wanted more time to study reports from the Geneva meeting, which they received more than a week ago.

He said the group would not meet earlier than Nov. 15 to consider the mission.

At issue is the damage done by rampaging militias after the Aug. 30 self-determination referendum in the former Portuguese colony.

One reason for the delay was that a report of the Sept. 27 meeting in Geneva did not get to New York until Oct. 21, and then took until Oct. 25 before translation into five languages was completed and it was distributed.

ECOSOC met on Oct. 26 but its president, Italian Ambassador Francesco Paolo Fulci, said the papers had arrived too late and members could not be expected to rubber stamp the Geneva decision.

He also said a note from Robinson indicated she could begin the probe without ECOSOC's consent.

But officials from her office told ECOSOC during Tuesday's session the team did need authorization to begin its work, diplomats at the meeting reported.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked for Robinson's investigators to give him their conclusions by Dec. 31, although some officials expect this deadline to be extended.

Robinson announced on Oct. 16 the selection of five commissioners from Nigeria, India, Papua New Guinea and Germany, headed by Sonia Picado of Costa Rica, an experienced human rights attorney, to conduct the probe.

Meanwhile, Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer said on Tuesday his country intended to maintain a "smaller presence" in East Timor, and would contribute some 1,700 troops to a UN peacekeeping operation expected to arrive in the territory in January.

Australia is now leading a multinational force in East Timor of 8,000 military personnel. Some 5,000 Australian troops form the bulk of the International Force for East Timor (Interfet), with other soldiers coming from Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and other nations.

DPA reported that Downer said his country would be "relaxed and comfortable" serving in the new UN force under the command of another country, which will be decided upon by Annan in the coming weeks.

The UN peacekeeping operation will have more than 10,000 troops, military observers and international police officers.

The operation and a UN civil mission will administer East Timor during a transitional period leading to full independence within three years.

Downer, who was in New York for talks with UN officials on East Timor, told a news conference that the "biggest challenges" for the UN would be repatriating refugees and creating an environment to facilitate their return.

Deaths

In Dili, East Timor, Interfet commander Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove said on Wednesday evidence suggested that the number of East Timorese who died in the violence following the Aug. 30 ballot was in the hundreds rather than the thousands.

"I can't rule out anything ... Our evidence at the moment shows us that the numbers of dead ... is in the hundreds, not the thousands," Cosgrove said.

Interfet has identified 108 bodies that it said appeared to have met a violent death.

He claimed that some 80,000 East Timorese were still unaccounted for, but noted that the process of figuring out where East Timor's population had gone was fraught with uncertainty.

Interfet estimates that 454,000 people are in East Timor, about 225,000 in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, 40,000 in other Indonesian provinces and 1,500 in Australia as refugees.

That would leave roughly 80,000 of what Cosgrove believed was East Timor's 800,000 population unaccounted for.

He referred to the 80,000 not as "missing" but as a "discrepancy", and said it might be explained by inaccuracies in other assumptions built into the numbers.

Alternatively, he said "there could be more in West Timor than we've actually found. There could be some in the hills (of East Timor). There could be some in the other, wider areas of the archipelago.

"Or it could be a combination of the three. That could total roughly the 80,000. There is always speculation about a fourth fate for some of these people."

So far there is little evidence to substantiate speculation about this "fourth fate".

Cosgrove said a great margin for error in Interfet population estimates made it too soon to rule any possibility in or out.