Sara Everingham – East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta has dismissed calls by Amnesty International to establish a war crimes tribunal to investigate human rights violations there during 24 years of Indonesian rule.

The report released just days before the young nation marks the 10-year anniversary of its independence referendum says many East Timorese are still awaiting justice.

But President Jose Ramos-Horta says he will not support an international investigation.

Edio Saldanha Borges says he was arrested by the Indonesian military when he was a teenager after the Santa Cruz massacre in 1991. His father suffered a worse fate.

"My father is killed by Indonesian military in 1999. They arrested my father in front of my brother and my sister and my mother, so this is traumatic for my family," he said.

Edio works with an organisation called the HAK Association. It is dedicated to advocating for justice in East Timor.

"This 10 years is time to reflect back to 1999, so how we expect to get justice, not only getting independence. So this is how to recognise the victim and human rights violence," he said. "So we tried to advocate for justice, also for reparation for victim."

'Waiting for justice'

The Opposition's David Ximenes Mandati, an independence leader, says more needs to be done to recognise the victims in East Timor. "I think that everyone is still waiting for the justice," he said.

A report by East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation recommends those accused of committing crimes in East Timor be brought to justice. But it has never been debated in Parliament.

In 2005 a joint Indonesia East Timor Truth and Friendship Commission was set up, but it did not have the power to prosecute.

Now a new report by Amnesty International says the victims of crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999 and during the Indonesian occupation are yet to receive any justice.

It calls for an international tribunal to be set up to bring those responsible to trial. It says a culture of impunity in East Timor risks undermining the rule of law.

'Academic jargon'

But Mr Ramos-Horta is opposed to the recommendations in the report.

"Above all we also care about letting Indonesians manage their own affairs. They have made tremendous progress in the last 10 years in moving away from dictatorship, from impunity into a more robust democracy," he said.

"Indonesians in their own time, on their own agenda, their own clock, they are the ones who eventually will bring to trial those in Indonesia responsible for crimes in Indonesia, in Aceh, in Iryan, Tanjung Priok and in East Timor – not Amnesty International, not the United Nations."

"If you went around with me, random around the country as I've done for many, many months across the country, meeting barefoot people all over the country, thousands of them, not one, not one raised the issues of 99, not one talk about putting Indonesians on trial," Mr Ramos-Horta added.

"All they asked me again and again, 'Mr President, when are we going to have electricity? When are we going to have a telephone network here?'"

Mr Ramos-Horta says it is only a small number of human rights activists who are calling for an international tribunal to be set up.

"And unlike many of them, these so-called international human rights groups and Timorese activists, I lost almost half of my brothers and sisters. And even myself I was almost killed dead," he said.

"So I know what being a victim is. I know what is the pain of a mother who lost her children. I don't talk academic jargon."