Wednesday, February 3, 2010

TL Groups write UN Security Council on Justice with international support

East Timorese groups, with international support from ETAN and others, have written to the UN Security Council urging the renewed UN mission include the following:
  1. Establish a mechanism during the UNMIT mission which will create an International Tribunal.
  2. Expand the mandate of the Serious Crimes Investigation Team (SCIT) to include some of the most grievous crimes committed prior to 1999, such as the 1975 invasion, 1983 Kraras Massacre, 1991 Santa Cruz Massacre, and others.
  3. Give SCIT the authority and sufficient resources to prepare and publish formal indictments for cases they have investigated. 
 They write
...the current UNMIT mandate only includes investigation processes but not prosecutions, and only covers serious crimes committed in 1999. We are worried that this limited mandate will not end the cycle of impunity in Timor-Leste. We are very concerned that if impunity prevails in Timor-Leste it will nourish impunity in other countries, and all of us who struggle for human rights will not succeed. Therefore, if the United Nations fails to end impunity for past crimes against humanity committed in Timor-Leste, there can be no accountability for ongoing crimes, such as those committed during the 2006 crisis in our country.
 See here for the full letter with signers

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