Letter to UN Security Council on Justice and Accountability
International Federation for East Timor (IFET), February 18, 2009
President
Security Council
The United Nations
1 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York 10017February 18, 2009
Your Excellency
We are writing on behalf of organizations long concerned with the justice process in Timor-Leste.
As you meet this week to discuss renewing the UN mission in Timor-Leste, we urge you to look at the unfulfilled UN pledges concerning human rights and accountability for serious human rights crimes committed in Timor-Leste between 1975 and 1999. We urge the Security Council to seriously examine the recommendations of the 2005 Commission of Experts (CoE) report and Chega! (Enough!), the final report of the Timor-Leste’s Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CAVR), as guides to establishing a process that can contribute to genuine justice and reconciliation. Such a process will support democracy and accountability in both Indonesia and Timor-Leste.
These, as well as reports from independent bodies, all concluded that the right of the people of Timor-Leste and the international community to achieve justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between 1975 and 1999 was not served by the serious crimes process in Timor-Leste and Indonesia’s Ad Hoc Human Rights Court, which in the end convicted no one.
