U.N. Rights Chief Urges E. Timor Probe

U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson said Friday that she is ready to launch an international inquiry into atrocities in East Timor and help bring those responsible to justice.

In a report issued after her trip last week to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, Robinson accused pro-Indonesian militias in East Timor of carrying out mass killings in the capital, Dili, and at a church in Suai. Women have been raped in both East and West Timor, she said.

As many as 200,000 civilians were forcibly displaced in East Timor, and many lack food and water, she added. Thousands are missing, and militias have reportedly been “combing the camps [in West Timor] for displaced persons with lists looking for students, intellectuals and activists, then taking them away.”

The violence that has engulfed the tiny territory since a pro-independence vote Aug. 30 has been perpetrated in full view of Indonesian police and military who watched or actively assisted the militias, according to her nine-page report.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that 7,000 people have been killed in the bloodshed in East Timor.

“There is overwhelming evidence that East Timor has seen a deliberate, vicious and systematic campaign of gross violations of human rights,” Robinson said. “I condemn those responsible in the strongest possible terms.”

Robinson, who expressed her concern to Indonesian President B. J. Habibie, added: “I have urged the Indonesian authorities to cooperate in the establishment of an international commission of inquiry into the violations so that those responsible are brought to justice.

“If needed, I am ready to take the initiative in launching such an international commission,” she declared.

International war crimes tribunals exist to examine mass violations in the former Yugoslav federation and during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Robinson is a lawyer and former president of Ireland.

She said the deployment of a multinational force to restore peace and security in East Timor is vital to protect human rights.