UN critical of East Timor human rights

August 21, 2008 - 4:28PM

AFP

Complaints of human rights abuses by East Timor's fledgling national police have shown a "notable increase" over the past year, the United Nations says.

The UN report said East Timor was at a crossroads in terms of rights, with progress since independence from Indonesia in 2002 tempered by abuses by the security forces and judicial shortcomings.

"The Timorese people and state institutions can continue to build on progress achieved or can turn back towards a more violent past," the UN mission's rights chief, Louis Gentile, said in a statement.

The report by the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) said a new national police taskforce created in the capital Dili in December had had a significant impact on crime.

But there had also been a sharp rise in the number of complaints about abuses by the security forces, it said.

The taskforce had been accused of "excessive use of force and ill-treatment during arrest, unlawful searches of houses and abusive behaviour," it said.

"In some cases, victims described being kicked, punched and beaten during arrest. The ill-treatment sometimes continued after the suspects were lying on the ground or had been taken inside a police vehicle."

Police had also forced suspects to do push-ups in public, "apparently as a form of instantaneous punishment and public humiliation."

UNMIT had also received reports of death threats, as well as arreststhat did not follow legal procedures. National leaders had made commitments to address such violations but accountability mechanisms remained weak.

The report welcomed progress in strengthening the justice system, namely the increasing number of Timorese judicial personnel and their heightened presence in the districts.

But it said effective access to justice was constrained and there was a backlog of some 4,700 criminal cases.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, gained formal independence in 2002 after a 24-year Indonesian occupation that is estimated to have caused the deaths of as many as 200,000 people.

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