First Net Print, Tuesday, February 01, 2000
Second  Net Print, October 30 2001

1. The present report is submitted pursuant to resolution S–4/1 adopted by the Commission on Human Rights on 27 September 1999 at its special session on the situation of human rights in East Timor held from 24 to 27 September 1999. The Special session was convened following increasing reports of widespread violence and serious human rights violations in East Timor after the popular consultation on the future status of East Timor on 30 August 1999.

2. In that resolution, the Commission condemned the widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in East Timor, the widespread violations and abuses of the right to life, personal security, physical integrity and the right to property, and the activities of the militias in terrorising the population. The Commission expressed its deep concern at the widespread forced removal and dislocation of persons to West Timor and other nearby areas, the serious humanitarian situation of the displaced East Timorese, the violence and intimidation directed against international agencies as well as most of the independent media and the lack of effective measures to deter or prevent militia violence and the reported collusion between the militias and members of the Indonesian armed forces and police in East Timor.

3. The Commission on Human Rights affirmed that all persons who committed or authorized violations of human rights or international humanitarian law were individually responsible and accountable for those violations and that the international community will exert every effort to ensure that those responsible were brought to justice. The Commission further affirmed that the primary responsibility for bringing perpetrators to justice rested with national judicial systems.

4. The Commission on Human Rights called upon the Secretary–General to establish an international commission of inquiry in order to gather and compile systematically information on possible violations of human rights and acts which might constitute breaches of international humanitarian law committed in East Timor, since the announcement in January 1999 of the vote and to provide the Secretary–General with its conclusions with a view to enabling him to make recommendations on future action, and to make the Commission's report available to the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-sixth session.

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