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Report Finds Indonesia At Fault For Massive Abuses In East Timor

Friday: July 11, 2008

(Sydney Morning Herald)

An inquiry report says that Indonesia bears “institutional responsibility” for human rights abuses -- including murder, rape, illegal detentions and mass deportations – that occurred before and after a 1999 independence vote in East Timor, the Sydney Morning Herald reports in an exclusive story, based on a copy of the report that it obtained.

The 300-page report was produced by an inquiry board set up by Indonesia and East Timor, and is scheduled to be released on Monday. The inquiry’s findings were supposed to blunt calls for an international tribunal to look into massive human rights abuses during the 1999 independence vote.

But the newspaper says the report is likely to increase pressure for such a tribunal. Among the report’s findings: "TNI and police personnel, as well as civilian officials, were at times involved in virtually every phase of these activities that resulted in gross human rights violations including murder, rape, torture, illegal detention, and forcible transfer and deportation. Viewed as a whole, the gross human rights violations committed against pro-independence supporters in East Timor in 1999 constitute an organized campaign of violence.”

The report concluded that "Indonesia bears state responsibility" for gross violations of human rights, the newspaper said.

Australian troops were deployed to East Timor to restore law and order in the aftermath of the violence.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/murder-mayhem-jakarta-to-blame/2008/07/10/1215658037934.html