Jakarta – A senior East Timor official said on Wednesday that the country would not prosecute the alleged human rights violations by Indonesian Military (TNI) troops in the international court of justice.

"We will not sue Indonesia at the international court of justice, but let the Indonesian justice system prosecute the alleged violators of human rights," Ramos Horta, a 1996 Nobel Prize laureate told reporters, after a meeting with Indonesian security ministers at the office of the coordinating minister for political and security affairs.

He said that the East Timor authority would like to observe the Indonesian government's commitment in upholding the law. "I know it's difficult to probe such human rights violation cases. And President Megawati [Soekarnoputri] ordered the establishment of an ad hoc human rights court to try such cases," he said. "I think we should just wait for the process," he said.

Horta was accompanied by special envoy of the UN secretary-general and the UN Transitional Authority in East Timor (Untaet) Sergio de Mello and East Timorese leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao. They met with the Indonesian security ministers discussing the security and economic bilateral relationship between Indonesia and East Timor, which has just held its first election after opting to separate from Indonesia in August 1999. The meeting also discussed the Exclusive Economic Zone (ZEE) between both countries.

Earlier in the day, the East Timor leaders also held a similar meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri at the State Palace.