Alexander Higgins, Geneva – Failure by a UN panel last week to approve a special investigation of alleged atrocities in East Timor risks the loss of evidence that could be used in any future international trial of militias or the Indonesian military, an official said today. "There will be inevitably some degradation of evidence," said Mr Jose Diaz, spokesman for the top UN official on human rights.

The UN Economic and Social Council, which was supposed to approve the special commission of inquiry at its meeting last Tuesday, apparently will wait until its next meeting on November 15 to take up the matter, Mr Diaz said. "We would have liked to have seen the commission of inquiry to get in there as soon as possible," he said.

The investigators, appointed as a result of an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Commission last month, are to examine allegations of atrocities following the territory's vote for independence on August 30. They are to report their conclusions to the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, by December 31.

Mr Diaz, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, declined to comment on whether there had been delaying tactics by countries on the council. But he noted that three UN investigators – on torture, extrajudicial killings and violence against women – planned to go to East Timor from November 4-10, accompanied by forensic experts. "There has been some evidence collected by the international force there, and we have very good testimony from UNAMET staff," Mr Diaz said, referring to the UN Assistance Mission in East Timor, present for the referendum. And some evidence was likely to last in any event, he said.

"If the reports of the massive and grave violations of human rights are correct, you won't be able to erase all the evidence that's there, but of course the sooner we get in there, the better." Mrs Robinson has named a five-member team to make up the commission.

It is to be led by a Costa Rican legislator, Sonia Picado. Also on the team are A.M. Ahmadi, a former Indian Chief Justice; Mari Kapa, Deputy Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea; German politician Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger; and Judith Sefi-Attah, of Nigeria.

Mrs Robinson has said the scale of atrocities committed by pro-Jakarta militias with Indonesian Army backing may warrant the creation of an international tribunal.