Human Rights Groups Demand Commission Remedy Timor Justice Failures

NEW YORK—UN secretary general Kofi Annan has been urged to establish an international commission of experts to review the prosecution of serious human rights violations committed in Timor-Leste in 1999.

In a letter renewing an early appeal, six human rights groups note that initiatives taken in Indonesia to address the crimes against humanity committed in 1999 have "failed," while those in Timor-Leste remain "incomplete."

"Five years after those crimes, the major perpetrators still enjoy impunity while the survivors and victims' relatives still wait for justice." The groups call for a commission to assess and remedy these failures. The six are Amnesty International, the Coalition for International Justice, Human Rights Watch, the International Center for Transitional Justice, the International Federation of East Timor, and the Open Society Justice Initiative.