Robinson calls for tribunal for East Timor

UN human rights chief Mrs Mary Robinson closed her three-day trip to East Timor today with a call for an international tribunal…

UN human rights chief Mrs Mary Robinson closed her three-day trip to East Timor today with a call for an international tribunal to try those guilty of massacres in 1999.

During her visit, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Ireland criticised Jakarta's handling of trials for those accused of atrocities in East Timor, once ruled by Indonesia.

Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo listens to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mrs Mary Robinson during her visit to Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili

She has also received strong demands from families of victims to fight for an international tribunal. Mrs Robinson said she would take that message back to the United Nations.

"Indonesia has been given an opportunity to bring justice and we are seeing this process but it has not satisfied me," she said at a final news conference before flying out of Dili.

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"So that's why I will bring back two recommendations made by the (East Timor) commission of inquiry that if Indonesia fails to bring justice there should be an international tribunal."

Yesterday, Mrs Robinson spent three hours at the border town of Suai, the site of a massacre during violence when East Timor voted in 1999 for independence. Residents here demanded a tribunal to satisfy their search for justice. Jakarta's special human rights court last week delivered the first verdicts in a string of cases linked to the 1999 carnage, largely blamed on pro-Jakarta militia backed by elements of the Indonesian army. The UN estimates more than 1,000 people were killed.

The Jakarta court acquitted a former East Timor police chief and five security officers linked to the massacre at Suai's church.