The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, in a report to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on her September 10-13 visit to Indonesia and Darwin, Australia, where she met evacuated UN staff, said there had been "a deliberate, vicious and systematic campaign of gross violations of human rights" in East Timor.
Robinson said she had been told of mass executions in Dili, the East Timor capital and at least 100 Catholics had been killed in a church in the town of Suai when pro-Indonesian militias set the building on fire.
She said that between 120,000 and 200,000 East Timorese had been displaced.
Under the heading "wanton killings", Robinson's report said that
militiamen:
In her report, Robinson offered to launch an international commission into "a campaign of human rights violations in East Timor".
Malaysia should give full support for the establishment of an international commission of inquiry into the human rights violations to deter further carnage and genocide and the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad should express the horror and outrage of Malaysians at the second ethnic cleansing and genocide in two consecutive generations in East Timor in the past 24 years.
The international community should ensure that the despatch of a United Nations multi-national force to East Timor can protect the human rights of the East Timorese not only in East Timor but also in West Timor.
There is great concern and fear that the despatch of the UN multi-national force to East Timor can lead to the total relocation of the militia and a major relocation of Indonesian army units from East to West Timor and an ethnic cleansing of the 200,000 East Timorese who have become refugees in West Timor and other parts of Indonesia rather than allowing them to return peacefully and safely to East Timor.
Malaysia should play a major initiative as an ASEAN member to ensure that there is no further ethnic cleansing and genocide of the 200,000 East Timorese who are refugees in West Timor and secure full assurance from the Indonesian authorities that all the 200,000 East Timorese would be given safe passage to return to East Timor under the auspices of UN multinational force.
(18/9/99)