---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Precedence: bulk UN Human Rights Commission Mulls Inquiry Mission to East Timor GENEVA, Sept 24 (AFP) - The UN Human Rights Commission Friday met here for a second day Friday in special session to decide whether to send an inquiry commission to investigate the massacre of civilians in East Timor. As debates continued, a four-man team from the UN refugee agency left here for West Timor to visit camps for displaced East Timorese who, according to reports, are still being terrorized by pro-Indonesian militias. An EU resolution called on the 53-member Human Rights Commission to "compile information on possible violations of human rights and acts which may constitute breaches of international humanitarian law committed in East Timor," according to an advance copy released to the media. The European Union further stated that anybody who commited or authorized human rights violations will be held "responsible and accountable for those violations," according to the text. But all 11 Asian nations in the commission, including Indonesia, have officially opposed the proposal. Some Muslim and Latin American countries, such as Sudan and Cuba, also voiced opposition. Diplomats negotiated furiously in the wings in an attempt to reach an accord acceptable to everyone before the session was due to close on Friday. Jose Ramos Horta, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of the East Timorese independence movement, appealed to the commission to act. "Do not be accomplices to war crimes," he pleaded. "Do not turn your backs on the EU resolution." "Your commission cannot flee reality in the face of this situation of genocide, of war crimes, of violence that has been orchestrated and directed by the (Indonesian) state, by an army that should be charged with protecting the civilian population," he declared. "How can you go home tonight and look at yourselves in the mirror?" Horta challenged. UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson had called Thursday for an international inquiry into reports that pro-Indonesian militias have massacred thousands of Timorese civilians with the support of Indonesian troops. US envoy George Moose on Friday supported that proposal and called on the Indonesian government to cooperate with a fact-finding mission. Moose also said that the United States urged Jakarta to "pursue effective investigation of these abuses, as Indonesian officials have indicated they will do." Moose added that it was "in Indonesia's own interests" to hold those responsible for human rights violations accountable for them. The commission met at the request of former colonial power Portugal, marking only the fourth time in a decade that a special session has been convened. East Timor Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Horta, attended the special session Friday. He urged the UN body to investigate crimes against "innocent people," and against "those who are fighting to protect their historical, cultural, and religious identity." Violence engulfed East Timor after an August 30 vote in which an overwhelming majority of residents backed indpendence from Jakarta.### ---------- SiaR WEBSITE: http://apchr.murdoch.edu.au/minihub/siarlist/maillist.html ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 25 Sep 1999 jam 14:33:02 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
