Mark Dodd – East Timor's Government is under pressure to eradicate torture and ill-treatment of detainees by its police force amid fears of a return to Indonesian-era human rights abuses.

Human Rights Watch said in a report this week that use of torture in the world's newest country was becoming routine. "We were shocked to find so many credible accounts of torture and severe ill-treatment by police officers," said Asia director Brad Adams. The grim findings follow a raft of security problems affecting the impoverished half-island state.

More than a third of the country's armed forces have been discharged over a mutiny linked to claims of poor service conditions and biased promotion.

Several people interviewed had gone to hospital because of the severity of their injuries, the 50-page report said.

The report is a serious blow to the Australian Federal Police. It continues to provide urgently needed training for Timorese police officers, many of whom served in the Indonesian police force held responsible for widespread human rights abuses during the country's brutal occupation of the impoverished state. "East Timor won independence in part because of Indonesia's horrific record here," Mr Adams said. "Some people are saying that the new police force is no better than the old one, and this should worry the Government."

One young man told the group about his arrest near the western border town of Maliana, scene of some of the worst pro-Jakarta militia atrocities in 1999.

"I was arrested by the PNTL (police) and put in a cell for two days and two nights," he said. "I was continuously tortured, sprayed with pepper spray, beaten and drenched with water.

"They constantly threatened me, saying if you oppose the police then you will know the consequence. Both nights were different people, but both times they were beating me."

HRW called on the Government to ensure through public measures and statements that there was a "clear, unambiguous and consistent signal from the top that police use of torture, arbitrary detention and excessive force will not be tolerated".

In response, East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said the organisation's report was "too negative".