Stephanie Nebehay, Geneva – Asian and Western states failed to agree yesterday on whether to launch a UN inquiry into killings in East Timor, and a UN Commission on Human Rights special session on the issue was due to resume on Monday.
East Timorese resistance leader Jose Ramos-Horta, comparing his people's fate to that of Jews during the Holocaust, had earlier called for a UN inquiry into war crimes.
In a sign of potential compromise the European Union, which has called for an international inquiry, emerged late yesterday from negotiations with Asian nations including Indonesia, and announced that its resolution had been revised. The new EU draft, to be debated on Monday, has been modified to include Asian experts on an international panel.
It calls on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish "an international inquiry with adequate representation of Asian experts in order to, in co-operation with the Indonesian national commission on human rights and thematic [UN] rapporteurs [investigators] gather and compile systematically information on possible violations of human rights".
Finland's envoy Pekka Huhtaniemi, whose country holds the EU presidency, told the Commission: "It is evident that many colleagues now feel they need some time to reflect on this new version and also in the cases of at least some, they need instructions either from their capital or from New York where their senior authorities are at the moment.
"So it would probably be wise to have a pause in the process and to come back on Monday with new vigour in order to try to find a consensual outcome," he added.
The United States backed the EU resolution for an investigation, but Latin American and African delegations took the floor at the Geneva forum to speak out against it. Indonesia had called on Asian, African and South American states yesterday to block Western attempts to launch the inquiry.
Portugal, the former colonial power, called for the two-day special session, the fourth in the commission's 53-year history. On Thursday, Japan, China, India and Pakistan signalled in speeches they would try to block any UN inquiry.
Similar commissions led to the establishment of UN war crimes tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Indonesia passed up an opportunity to discuss East Timor in the UN General Assembly on Thursday.