ICTJ in the News

July 1, 2005

UN panel calls for new tribunal on East Timor

Financial Times

By Mark Turner

excerpt

Eduardo Gonzalez, from the New York-based International Center for Transitional Justice, said: "The justice process in Timor was orphaned because the UN distanced itself from the process, because the government of Timor preferred to appease its powerful neighbour, and because Indonesia decided not to co-operate."

Similarly, he said, the Indonesian process was flawed. "In essence no high-level perpetrator has served a day in jail for the cold-blooded murder of 1,400 people in Timor and the forced displacement of about 100,000." According to the UN commission, Indonesia should appoint an international team to strengthen its judicial system and re-open prosecutions by the ad hoc court. Evidence pertaining to the indictment of Gen Wiranto from East Timor should be handed to the Indonesian attorney-general.

The government should implement these changes within six months or else the Security Council should create an "ad hoc international criminal tribunal for Timor-Leste, to be located in a third state", it said.

Mr Gonzalez called the proposals "a second chance for Indonesia to do what they didn't do when they should have".