UNTAET CHIEF OF STAFF LEAVES FOR KUPANG
UNTAET’s Chief of Staff Parameswaran and the Head of UNTAET’s Office in Kupang Timothy Hudner left today for Kupang, West Timor, to prepare for Bishop of Baucau Basílio do Nascimento’s visit to West Timor on 28 May. The Bishop will meet with the Chairman of the pro-autonomy organization UNTAS Domingos Soares and other UNTAS members, as well as with former militiamen. On 29 May, Bishop Basílio do Nascimento will participate in a meeting between East Timorese liurais (traditional kings) who are residing in East Timor and liurais living in West Timor. The following day, the Bishop is expected to visit a refugee camp and give a mass. The Civilian Police Commissioner José Luís da Costa e Sousa is also part of the delegation, invited by the Indonesian Chief of Police of Kupang. In other related news, UNTAET will send an observer, Timothy Hudner, to the one-day registration exercise the Government of Indonesia plans to hold in the refugee camps in West Timor on 6 June.
EAST TIMORESE DIRECTORS RECRUITED
The Civil and Public Employment Service last week recruited three East Timorese as Heads of the Donor Coordination Unit, the Gender Affairs Unit and the Environmental Protection Unit. A senior level East Timorese has also been recruited as the Director of the Division of Health Services and four East Timorese as deputies. Sixty-four East Timorese were recruited on Tuesday as Directors of the Health Services in the districts.
PTT APPLIES FOR PARTY REGISTRATION
The Partido Trabalhista Timorense (PTT) submitted an application for registration to the Independent Electoral Commission today, 25 May, in order to present candidates to the elections for the Constituent Assembly. This is the eight party to submit an application.
FACT SHEET UPDATE - SERIOUS CRIMES AND
JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF 1999 VIOLENCE
- The Serious Crimes Panel at the Dili District Court has the exclusive mandate to try people suspected of carrying out crimes surrounding the popular consultation on 30 August 1999. The Panel, which consists of one Timorese and three international Judges, can try cases of Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, Murder, Sexual Offences and Torture, carried out between 1 January and 25 October 1999. The Special Panel was set up in June last year and is part of the Department of Justice. Courts for ordinary crimes have been set up in Dili, Baucau and Oecussi.
- The legal framework for dealing with serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law is to be found in Regulation 2000/15 on the Establishment of Panels with Exclusive Jurisdiction over Serious Criminal Offences and Regulation 2000/16 on the Organization of the Prosecution Service.
- The Office of East Timor’s Prosecutor General intends to investigate the major incidents of mass killings committed throughout the territory. Perpetrators at all levels, and in particular those answerable for the directed campaign of murder, persecution and deportation of the civilian population, will be held accountable for their crimes.
- Serious Crimes investigators have concentrated on ten priority cases: the Liquiça Church massacre (6 April 1999); the murders at the house of Manuel Carrascalão (17 April 1999); the Maliana Police Station (2-8 September 1999); the Lospalos case (21 April-25 September 1999, see below), the Lolotoe case (2 May-16 September 1999, see below); the Suai Church massacre (6 September 1999); the attack on Bishop Belo’s compound (6 September 1999); the Passabe and Makaleb massacres (September-October 1999); a second case in Lospalos (April-September 1999); and further sexual violence cases carried out in various districts (March-September 1999.)
- Seven of the ten of the priority cases have been handed over from the Investigation Unit to the Prosecutor General: The Passabe and Makaleb case, the case in Lolotoe, the Liquiça Church massacre, the Carrascalão house attack, the Maliana Police station, the Lospalos case and the cases of sexual crimes.
- The Serious Crimes Unit of the Prosecutor General currently has 27 investigators, including three crime analysts, one pathologist, three forensic anthropologists and 11 interpreters. Three Investigators from the Civilian Police will join the Unit in June.
- About 1,900 statements from witnesses, victims and suspects have been collected as of today, mainly into the 10 priority cases. The Unit has filed a total of 670 cases.
- Some 60 people suspected of Serious Crimes are currently held in Becora (Dili) and Gleno (Ermera) prisons. To date, 44 persons have been indicted.
- The first indictment containing charges of Crimes Against Humanity was filed on 11 December, by the Office of the Prosecutor General. The indictment accuses eleven persons of committing Crimes Against Humanity, including murder, torture, deportation and forcible transfer of civilian population in Lospalos, Lautem District, between 21 April and 25 September 1999. The group, which consists of members of the Team Alfa militia and an Indonesian Army Officer, is accused of committing at least 13 murders. Trial date has been set for 3 July.
- The second indictment of Crime Against Humanity was filed on 6 February. Five persons, including an officer of the Indonesian Army, have been indicted suspected of murder, rape, torture, unlawful deprivation of liberty, inhumane and degrading treatment and persecution. The crimes were allegedly committed before and after the popular consultation in Lolotoe sub-district, Bobonaro district, by members of the Indonesian Army (TNI) and the Kaer Metin Merah Putih militia.
- A third Crimes Against Humanity indictment is currently with the Dili District Court for approval. The crimes were allegedly committed in Liquiça district as part of a campaign of violence by members of the Indonesian Army (TNI) and the pro-autonomy militia group Besi Merah Putih (Red White Iron).
- The Prosecutor General’s Office is pursuing a policy aimed at also prosecuting low-level perpetrators, who have been taking part in criminal acts together with others in senior or command positions. A number of individual cases of murder and other offences that fall under the Serious Crimes mandate have been tried and are in the process of being tried at this writing. The first sentence in such a case was delivered on 25 January 2001. A former militia member, who admitted to a murder in Bobonaro district on 8 September 1999, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. A total of five accused have been convicted to date.
Dili, 25 May 2001