Fwd: [owny] Event: Justice for East Timor? August, 18 7pm

[Zeeshan Suhail]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Craig-Jesse Hughes <craigjes...@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 12:33 PM
Subject: [owny] Event: Justice for East Timor? August, 18 7pm
To: ow...@lists.us.oneworld.net

Justice for East Timor?: Impunity for Crimes Against Humanity and the Commission on Truth and Friendship Monday, August 18, 7pm Bluestockings Books: 172 Allen Street (F Train to Delancey), Manhattan directions at http://www.bluestockings.com/directions.html.   What are the prospects for justice for crimes committed during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor? Matt Easton of Human Rights First, historian and activist Iben Trino-Molenkamp, and John M. Miller will discuss the recent report of the Commission on Truth and Friendship, which acknowledges Indonesian responsibility for severe human rights violations in East Timor in 1999, but also encourages impunity for those responsible for crimes against humanity. Contact: eta...@etan.org; 718-596-7668 Background:   Indonesian officials organized a campaign of terror against the East Timorese people, during East Timor's independence referendum in 1999: first to compel them against voting for independence, and then after that failed, to punish the Timorese for their decision. In less than a year, 1,400 East Timorese were murdered, 75% of the nation's infrastructure was destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Timorese were displaced.    In late 2005 Indonesia and Timor-Leste founded the Commission on Truth and Friendship -- a bilateral body whose task was to determine the "conclusive truth" about violence surrounding the referendum. The Commission's report was given to Indonesian and Timorese governments in late July.   The report found that the Indonesian military was in charge of organizing and arming the militias responsible for human rights violations. However, the commission had serious weaknesses: it deals with only the last year of Indonesia's brutal occupation; the commission could not compel testimony and Timorese witnesses were sometimes mistreated. The commission could not recommend prosecutions and could have, but chose not to, recommended amnesties. The Indonesian, Timorese and U.S. governments are all accepting the Commission's findings.

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Zeeshan Suhail
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