Anne Barker – The United Nations Security Council has been handed a report that recommends an International War Crimes tribunal on atrocities in East Timor, if Indonesia fails to retry those accused of masterminding the violence in 1999. But Indonesia has rejected the proposal.

A special Indonesian court has already tried 18 senior officers accused of orchestrating the 1999 pre-independence violence that killed around 1,400 people. But virtually all have been acquitted.

An United Nations commission of experts has recommended Indonesia retry suspects and punish those responsible within six months, or submit to an International War Crimes tribunal in a third country.

The UN commission of experts slammed Indonesia's own human rights court as a sham. The commission's confidential report says Indonesia's court process was manifestly inadequate and showed scant respect for international judicial standards.

But Indonesia's Foreign Ministry has rejected the proposal, with spokesman Marty Natalegawa saying Indonesia and East Timor prefer the establishment of a Truth Commission focusing on reconciliation.

"It's in our very interests in wanting to have closure and to ensure that there is no impunity," he said. "Why we say that because Indonesia today is far different to what it was before. But it has to be some, a process which actually brings Indonesia and Timor Leste even closer together."