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II. RECOMMENDATIONS

To the Government of Indonesia

* Take urgent steps to ensure the strictly humanitarian and civilian nature of refugee camps and settlements in West Timor, in accordance with international standards. This entails the immediate separation of militias from civilian refugees, and the exclusion of militias from all civilian refugee camps and settlements.

* Instruct Indonesian police and law enforcement officers to intervene in all situations where militias are intimidating, harassing, or physically attacking civilian refugees, and to take the necessary measures to arrest and prosecute those responsible for such violations. Those responsible for impeding refugee return should be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with international standards.

* Guarantee immediate, full, free, and safe access for UNHCR and humanitarian aid organizations to all refugee camps and settlements in West Timor and to East Timorese refugees in other parts of Indonesia. UNHCR should be given full and safe access to all refugees in order to determine their desire to return and to ensure that decisions regarding return are voluntary and are taken in an open, safe environment without intimidation or harassment. The security of all UNHCR and other humanitarian staff must be guaranteed, and police and law enforcement officers should be instructed to intervene and take action against militia members who attempt to harass, intimidate, or attack humanitarian staff, or impede their access to refugee camps and settlements.

* Cooperate fully with UNHCR on public information campaigns and take necessary steps, using the mass media, to counter deliberate misinformation campaigns taking place in refugee camps and settlements in West Timor.

* Cooperate fully with the international Commission of Inquiry established by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. If the work of the commission is extended after it submits its first report to Secretary-General Annan at the end of December 1999, the government should facilitate access for investigators to sites throughout Indonesia where relevant evidence or witnesses may be found.

* Respect the independence of the Indonesian Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights Abuses in East Timor (KPP-HAM) and be prepared to implement KPP-HAM findings and recommendations aimed at establishing full accountability for the crimes committed in East Timor.

* In cooperation with the international Commission of Inquiry and KPP-HAM, take police action to arrest and prepare prosecution of those who have committed forced expulsions, assaults, killings, rapes, and similar criminal acts against the population of East Timor, including militia leaders now resident in refugee camps and settlements in West Timor. It is the primary responsibility of the Indonesian government to identify and bring to justice the particular individuals who committed, planned, authorized, and encouraged the atrocities committed in East Timor, no matter how high-ranking those who are responsible may be. Any failure to do so will be cause for more aggressive international efforts to establish accountability for the crimes.

* KPP-HAM should continue compiling evidence and simultaneously cooperate fully with the international Commission of Inquiry, sharing information and facilitating access for investigators to witnesses and sources of evidence in Indonesia. A KPP-HAM spokesman has already announced that the Indonesian commission has evidence of military involvement in the violence that followed the ballot. KPP-HAM staff have detailedknowledge of the names and relationships between key actors within the police and armed forces, and KPP-HAM thus can play a key role in tracing the links necessary to establish command responsibility.

* The findings and recommendations of KPP-HAM and the international commission should be made independently and communicated separately.

To the International Community

* At the World Bank-convened donor meeting on East Timor to be held in Tokyo on December 17, Indonesia's key donors should develop a strategy to apply consistent pressure on the Indonesian government to take effective action to address the situation of the displaced, and raise concerns with the Indonesian delegation attending the Tokyo meeting. The donors should call on Indonesia to take immediate steps to ensure the strictly civilian and humanitarian nature of refugee camps and settlements in West Timor, to carry out the immediate separation of militias from refugee populations, to instruct the Indonesian police to intervene, arrest, and reprimand militias who harass, intimidate, and attack refugees and humanitarian staff; and to allow full, free and safe access for UNHCR and other international humanitarian organizations to all East Timorese refugee camps and settlements in West Timor and elsewhere in Indonesia.

* Provide financial and logistical support to UNHCR for its mass information campaign on refugee repatriation and to enable it to facilitate and monitor repatriation of refugees to East Timor.

* Press the Indonesian government to step up efforts to investigate and pursue individual responsibility for human rights violations committed against the population of East Timor in the immediate wake of the referendum and against those later forced into exile. In particular, evidence of these crimes, which exists in abundance, must be collected and preserved with the aim of swiftly investigating and prosecuting specific militia leaders, and ultimately, any individuals in the Indonesian military or government who may have directly participated or been complicit in the crimes. Other nations should also make available their courts for prosecution of any acts which constitute crimes of universal jurisdiction. In the event that the Indonesian government is either unwilling or not wholly able to prosecute these cases and investigate them to their logical conclusions, the international community must insist on the establishment of an international tribunal capable of pursuing justice for the most serious crimes committed against the people of East Timor.

* In particular, the international Commission of Inquiry should rigorously pursue investigation of the many militia leaders whose whereabouts in the camps and settlements in West Timor is now well known. The evidence should be collected systematically and with the care and detail necessary to safeguard its admissibility in a court of law and with concern for the protection of witnesses. Investigation and, where appropriate, prosecution of the leaders, demanded by many East Timorese, is important to protecting civilian refugees now in the camps and ending longstanding impunity for acts of violence in East Timor. Such investigations could also help uncover evidence relevant to the indictment and prosecution of Indonesian military officials.

* Following evaluation of the upcoming report of the Commission of Inquiry, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan should call for detailed follow-up investigations by the commission. Much investigative work remains to be done, and the evidence that does exist makes it imperative that investigations continue. International commission investigators should continue to conduct forensics investigations, to preserve and compile evidence in the scientific and systematic fashion required to establish individual responsibility under international criminal law, and to protect the confidentiality of information and security of witnesses. International commission investigators should also continue conducting interviews with individual victims, many of whom have been reluctant to speak with Indonesian investigators, and suspected perpetrators of abuses, including militia leaders in West Timor.

*

Interfet authorities and officials of the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), working with East Timorese leaders to re-establish the rule of law in East Timor, should take prompt action against any acts of vigilantism against suspected militia members.

To UNHCR and Other International Humanitarian Organizations

* Continue the mass information campaign intended to provide refugees in West Timor, and elsewhere in Indonesia, with full and impartial information about conditions in East Timor and to counter the misinformation campaign and intimidation of refugees in camps and settlements

* Continue efforts to seek access to all refugee camps and settlements in West Timor in order to monitor the return of refugees and to ensure that refugees' decisions regarding repatriation are made in a free and open environment without intimidation, harassment, and physical attacks.

* Step up efforts to reach refugees in other parts of Indonesia, including Kisar where unconfirmed reports indicate the presence of 2,000 or more refugees. An urgent effort should be made to determine the extent to which East Timorese are present in Alor, Wetar, Flores, Irian Jaya, Sulawesi, and other islands where refugees are rumored to be seeking safety; to provide assistance and protection; to ascertain in an open, noncoercive environment whether the refugees desire to return to East Timor; and to facilitate and monitor return for those who wish to do so.

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