19 November -- A United Nations expert panel to investigate human rights violations in East Timor is set to travel to the territory on Sunday, a UN spokesman in New York announced today.
The five-member international commission of inquiry will go to the capital, Dili, where it will interview witnesses and visit sites where rights violations were reported to have taken place. The Commission, headed by Sonia Picado of Costa Rica, will return to Geneva to prepare their final report to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which must be submitted by 31 December.
In a related development, an expert from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is assisting the National Indonesian Human Rights Commission on East Timor in carrying out its mandate. The Indonesian panel is conducting its own investigation into the events prior to and after the 30 August independence ballot.
Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today that its staff were now forced to mount commando-style snatch-and-run operations in West Timor to help refugees wishing to return to East Timor. The new tactics follow Wednesday's incident of militia harassment, in which local police stood by and made no effort to intervene.
UNHCR said it had to hurriedly extract 76 people from the militia-controlled Tua Puka camp. Refugee ran to trucks parked just outside the gates, quickly clambered aboard and the trucks sped off before the militia were able to respond.
Wednesday's attack has scared off many refugees, UNHCR said. Before the incident, its repatriation program was averaging 4,000 returns a day. Convoys sent to pick up returnees yesterday and today reported dozens of no-shows and a ferry transport from a port near Atambua, where the attack took place, had to be cancelled both days.
