Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces (TNI) appears to have organised the mass bloodshed that hit East Timor, after it voted overwhelmingly for independence, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said yesterday.

"My worry is that it appears to be systemic. All the interlocuters I spoke to.. all of them said TNI was fully involved . orchestrating it," she told a news conference.

She said that she had received many harrowing reports, including those of rape and systematic evictions, when she talked to local and international UN staff who had been evacuated to Darwin in northern Australia.

She has recommended that a panel of experts set up an inquiry, as to whether there should be some sort of international tribunal.

That would help stop "the well-planned and systematic policy of killings, displacement, destruction of property and intimidation carried out by militia groups and elements of the security," said the High Commissioner. "There must be no impunity from that scale of violation," she said.

Much of the evidence needed for prosecution of crimes committed in East Timor had already been collected, she said. "This will allow the international community to put the criminals responsible away, provided the resolve is there."