UN rights commissioner's envoy visits East Timor

JAKARTA (JP): The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' special envoy to East Timor, Soli Sorabjee, is scheduled to start a four-day visit to the province on Thursday to assess the human rights conditions in the troubled territory.

Sorabjee told The Jakarta Post here on Wednesday that his main mission to East Timor was to gather information from various sources about the situation in the territory ahead of the UN-run independence vote on Aug. 8.

"I want to listen to all sides involved in the East Timor issue about their genuine aspirations for the territory's future," he said.

He said that his appointment as an envoy to East Timor was to follow up an agreement between Indonesia and Portugal in early May that the territory would be free from violence and intimidation before and during the vote.

"I'm not a policeman for a criminal investigation. I'm not a judge who wants to try criminals in the territory. My main mission is to listen to all sides, including the conflicting factions, to help stop the mass killing," he said.

He said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson was very concerned with human rights violations, including recent violence between conflicting factions.

"The two sides have agreed to hold a peaceful ballot to know the East Timorese people's genuine aspirations, whether they will accept the special autonomy offered by the Indonesian government or be separated from Indonesia," he said, citing the poll could not be held if the violence continued and the local people were not free from intimidation and terror.

Dozens of East Timorese people have been killed in clashes between pro-independence and pro-integration groups since the government announced in January the province could be independent if the people rejected the special autonomy offer.

Sorabjee, also India's attorney general, said he would make a report to the UN human rights commissioner, who was expected to make recommendations on the human rights situation in the territory.

He said he was scheduled on Thursday to meet with East Timor Governor Abilio Osoario Soares and Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and the East Timorese Peace and Stability Commission.

"On Friday, I will make a field tour to Liquica, Suai and, likely, Baucau," he said.

Sorabjee, who met National Commission on Human Rights chairman Marzuki Darusman upon his arrival here on Saturday, said he would also meet Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, government ambassador-at- large to East Timor FX Lopez da Cruz, local NGO representatives, journalists and foreign diplomats. (rms)