William M. Reilly, United Nations – The United Nations expressed dismay over the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal in Indonesia following the verdict Wednesday against former East Timor Governor Abilio Soares with both Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Human Rights High Commissioner Mary Robinson questioning the tribunal's practices.

Soares, proclaiming innocence, vowed to appeal. Robinson expressed in a statement from Geneva concern that the Indonesian prosecution never presented the court "evidence that portrays the killings and other human rights violations" in East Timor following the 1999 independence ballot as part of "a widespread or systematic pattern of violence."

Annan, through spokeswoman Hua Jiang, endorsed Robinson's statement but called attention to prosecutors and defendants suggesting there were irregularities in the conduct of the UN Mission in East Timor during the August 30, 1999, Popular Consultation.

"These irregularities are alleged to have contributed to the widespread violence that engulfed the territory in September 1999," Annan said. "These allegations are false."

For the record, the spokeswoman noted, security at the time of balloting "rested at all times with the Indonesian authorities, not with UNAMET, as set out in the agreements of May 5, 1999. Furthermore UNAMET was completely unarmed."

Hua also said an electoral commission certified the results and not one ballot box was unaccounted for; that recruitment to work in UNAMET was open to all qualified East Timorese regardless of political beliefs and announcement of the ballots' result "was in accordance with planned procedures, in consultation with the Indonesian government."

Said the statement, "It cannot be concluded that the large scale, organized and coordinated violence of September and October 1999 following the announcement of the result of the popular consultation was a consequence of any irregularities in the ballot, bias or abdication of security responsibilities on the part of UNAMET.

"It should also be recalled that in the violence, UN local staff were killed because they worked for UNAMET and UN property was systematically looted and destroyed," the statement said. "The United Nations reiterates its offer to make available to the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal, upon request of the Indonesian authorities, evidence in connection with these or other relevant issues."

Robinson, a human rights lawyer by profession, in addition to being the former president of Ireland, was concerned at omissions.

"The indictments present the killings and other abuses [of human rights law] as the result of spontaneous conflict between armed factions within East Timorese Society," she said in her statement. "This seriously undermines the strength of the prosecution's case and jeopardized the integrity and credibility of the process.

"This approach contradicts the conclusions of the International Commission of Inquiry on East Timor of January 31, 2000," the high commissioner said.

"That inquiry concluded that 'there were patterns of gross violations of human rights and breaches of humanitarian law which varied over time and took the form of systematic and widespread intimidations, humiliation and terror, destruction of property, violence against women and displacement of people,'" she said. "'Patterns were also found relating to the destruction of evidence and the involvement of the Indonesian Army and the militias in the violations.'"

Robinson said in her statement that the prosecution's approach "also conflicts with the judgments of the UN-sponsored Serious Crimes Court in Dili, which has handed down a number of convictions for crimes against humanity based upon the court's conclusion that members of the Indonesian Army planned, carried out and directed militia to participate in widespread and systematic attacks on the East Timorese civilian population in 1999."

The high commissioner also expressed concern the prosecution only presented "a very small percentage of available testimony and evidence of victims and eyewitnesses" despite UN offers of assistance.

"Those few East Timorese witnesses who have traveled to Jakarta to give evidence have complained of intimidation, inside and outside the courtroom," she said, adding that the witnesses also complained of a lack of adequate interpretation and absence of an effective witness protection program.

"The United Nations urges the Indonesian authorities to urgently take all possible measures to ensure that they investigate fully the violations of human rights and international and humanitarian law perpetrated in East Timor in the period leading up to and immediately following the popular consultation," said the statement which also called for the tribunal to "function in full respect of international human rights standards."