Jakarta – The global group Human Rights Watch on Saturday called for an independent investigation with UN participation of the brutal murders of three UN humanitarian workers in West Timor.
"The alternative is relying on the 10-person team composed entirely of Indonesian army and police set up Friday by the provincial police command in West Timor," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement recieved here.
"There is a real danger of a cover up if this investigation is left to the same people who have let the miltia run rampant for the last 12 months," the statement quoted HRW Asia director Sidney Jones as saying. "The question is not just who committed these savage murders – it's who is responsible for the systematic intimidation of aid workers and refugees that escalated into outright murder."
Survivors of the grisly attack on Wednesday, in which three staff members of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were hacked to death, say Indonesian police there did nothing to try to stop the machete-wielding militia entering the office. "Given the record of local authorities in dealing with the militias, I think there will be scepticism about every aspect of this case unless respected outside investigators are part of a fact-finding team," HRW added.
The statement came after reports and UN officials in Indonesia said the same pro-Jakarta militia blamed for the murders had again gone on the rampage and massacred between 11 and 20 villagers in West Timor.
The second attack reportedly took place in the Betun area, 65 kilometers southeast of the border town of Atambua, where the aid workers were killed. Local police denied knowledge of that attack and refused to confirm reports that militia gangs had set fire to 65 homes on Thursday in the town of Besikama, about 15 kilometers from Betun.
Atambua residents on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the miltia – who were raised as an auxiliary force by the Indonesian miltiary during their occupation of East Timor – were marauding through Atambua hunting down families of local humanitarian workers.
The UNHCR and other UN agencies have been helping repatriate and care for the remaining 100,000 or so refugees who were forced out of East Timor last year in the wake of the independence vote there.
Human Rights Watch said in its statement that "a comprehensive policy is needed to protect the East Timorese in West Timor and the humanitarian workers who assist them." Among the recommendations it made were an extension of the mandate of UN peacekeeping forces now in East Timor "to provide protection for humanitarian workers in West Timor unless a credible alternative is found."
The statement also proposed that the "international community consider economic sanctions against Indonesia unless a serious effort is made to protect the rights and security of the refugees and those who work with them."
A multi-national force of thousands of peacekeepers has been in East Timor since the miltia rampaged through the territory after its people voted for independence from Indonesia on August 30, 1999.
The Human Rights Watch statement was issued after the UN Security Council in New York Friday condemned the murders of the aid workers and insisted that Indonesia act immediately to disarm and disband militias there.
The 15 council members voted unanimously for a resolution which also underlined that the United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor should "respond robustly" to cross-border threats by the militia.
The resolution stressed that "those responsible for the attacks on international personnel in West and East Timor must be brought to justice." Before the vote, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters "the Security Council will send a mission to Indonesia and East Timor."