Armed conflict in the world today: a country by country review
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- Current Situation
EAST TIMORStatement: The situation in East Timor is a war of national liberation in exercise of the right to self-determination with a recent referendum on independence. Background: East Timor was a Portuguese colony for over 300 years. In 1975, as Portugal was preparing to grant independence to the territory, the Indonesian army mounted an invasion, annexed East Timor (in 1976), and has occupied the territory ever since. The UN has never recognized Indonesia’s claim of sovereignty. Indonesia has waged a brutal counterinsurgency campaign of political imprisonment, arbitrary arrest, murder and rape against the resistance movement. During the occupation, up to 200,000 Timorese (approximately one-third of the population) died of disease, starvation, or were murdered. In November 1991, soldiers fired on a peaceful demonstration of approximately 2000 in the Santa Cruz cemetery of Dili. Up to 270 people may have died and another 200 have “disappeared.” There is evidence that some of the wounded taken to a military hospital were deliberately killed. The UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions found reasons to believe that the killings were a planned military operation. Ten low-ranking members of the security forces were charged with disobeying orders and one with assault or cutting off of the ears of a demonstrator, while six senior officers were found guilty of misconduct. Although no officers were charged with serious assault or murder, thirteen civilians participating in the protest were sentenced to terms up to life imprisonment. There are also credible reports of forced or involuntary sterilizations of Timorese girls and women by Indonesian authorities. The government arrested the resistance’s top leader, Jose (Xanana) Gusmao, in 1992, and the second in command, M ‘Huno da Costa Gomes, in April, 1993. On May 21, 1993, in a highly criticized trial, Xanana was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1995, Carmel Budiardjo won the Right Livelihood prize for her work on East Timor. Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, East Timor’s Archbishop, and Jose Ramos Horta, an exiled Timorese leader, were awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize “for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict.” During 1997, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan initiated three rounds of talks between Indonesia and Portugal in the hopes of creating new progress towards a settlement. Nelson Mandela had been continuously requesting Soeharto to release Xanana since Mandela’s visit to Xanana in July, 1997. The Secretary-General also named Jamshal Marker as UN Mediator. Current Situation: Indonesian President Soeharto resigned in May 1998 and his successor B.J. Habibie promised the release of Timorese political prisoners. Some were released throughout the remainder of 1998. Xanana was finally moved from prison to house arrest in February 1999 and released in September 1999. On January 27, 1999, the Indonesian government announced it would consider giving East Timor its independence if its proposal for “special autonomy” were rejected. In the days before the August 30, 1999 referendum, anti-independence militias staged intimidation campaigns, carrying machetes and automatic weapons around neighborhoods, and firebombing the office of the National Council of Timorese Resistence in Lospalos. Nevertheless, the vote resulted in a landslide victory for independence supporters. After the result was announced on September 4, 1999 there was widespread violence and killing. The Indonesian military originally denied responsibility, but separate Indonesian and UN investigations have since accused the army and senior minister General Wiranto, who led the armed forces at the time of the vote, of supporting the anti-independence militias. 750,000 East Timorese (out of a population of less than 900,000) were displaced by the fighting, and the capital, Dili, was nearly destroyed. In September, 1999 Habibie agreed to allow UN peacekeepers, and in October he turned over authority for East Timor to the UN. On October 20, 1999, Indonesia’s legislature voted to renounce all claims to East Timor. The UN Mission (UNAMET), has military, police, governance, and humanitarian components and is expected to remain two to three years until a Timorese government is elected. ECOSOC has set up a team to investigate violence in the region between January 1999, when the decision to allow the referendum was made, through the post-election violence. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that there was “overwhelming evidence that East Timor has seen a deliberate, vicious and systematic campaign of gross violations of human rights.” UN officials have found evidence of wide-spread murder, rape, and torture. Several sites of mass graves have been found, and more than 300 people were killed during the violence, including a massacre of 56 men found buried in the town of Passabe, and up to another ten more buried nearby in West Timor. Passabe is in the Oecussi enclave, surrounded on three sides by Indonesian-controlled West Timor. Hundreds of thousands of people fled to West Timor, have been living in camps, and have been intimidated from returning by militia members. They are slowly returning to East Timor. Inadequate sanitation and medical supplies in the camps have resulted in the deaths of at least 500 people, many of them infants. UN Action: UNTAET (10/99-present). SC Res 1272 (10/25/99). SC Res 1264 (9/15/99). SC Res 1262 (8/27/99). SC Res 1258 (8/3/99). SC Res 1246 (6/11/99). SC Res 1236 (5/7/99). SC Res 389 (4/22/76). SC Res 384 (12/22/75). GA Res 54/246B (4/7/2000). GA Res 54/24A (12/23/99). GA Res 54/194 (12/17/99). GA Res 54/20B (4/7/2000). GA Res 54/96H (12/15/99). GA Res 54/20A (10/29/99). GA Res 37/30 (11/23/82). GA Res 1541 (XV) (12/15/60). GA Res 1514 (XV) (12/14/60).
Comm Res 1993/97. Comm Res 1992/84. Comm Res 1983/8.
Sub-Comm Res 1993/12. Sub-Comm Res 1992/20. Sub-Comm Res 1990/15. Sub-Comm Res 1989/7. Sub-Comm Res 1987/13. Sub-Comm Res 1984/24. Sub-Comm Res 1983/26. Sub-Comm Res 1982/20.
Rpt S-G (E/CN.4/1999/28). Rpt S-G (S/1999/862). Rpt S-G (S/1999/803). Rpt S-G (S/1999/705). Rpt S-G (S/1999/595). Rpt S-G (S/1999/513). Rpt S-G (E/CN.4/1998/58). Rpt S-G (E/CN.4/1997/51 & Add.1). Rpt S-G (E/CN.4/1996/56). Rpt S-G (E/CN.4/1995/72). Rpt S-G (E/CN.4/1994/61). Rpt S-G (E/CN.4/1993/49).
E/CN.4/1996/112; E/CN.4/2000/27. Notes by Secretariat: E/CN.4/2000/44; E/CN.4/2000/45. Reports of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances: E/CN.4/1990/13; E/CN.4/1991/20; E/CN.4/1992/18; E/CN.4/1993/25; E/CN.4/1995/36; E/CN.4/1996/38; E/CN.4/1997/34; E/CN.4/1999/62; E/CN.4/2000/64. Reports of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: E/CN.4/1994/27; E/CN.4/1995/31 & Add.2; E/CN.4/1996/40/Add.1; E/CN.4/1997/4/Add.1, Dec.No. 36/1996; E/CN.4/1999/63 & Add.1; E/CN.4/2000/4/Add.2; E/CN.4/2000/4 & Add.1.
P. Kooijmans: E/CN.4/1990/17; E/CN.4/1991/17; E/CN.4/1992/17 & Add.1; E/CN.4/1993/26. Nigel S. Rodley: E/CN.4/1994/31; E/CN.4/1995/34; E/CN.4/1996/35 & Add.1; E/CN.4/1997/7 & Add.1; E/CN.4/1999/61; E/CN.4/2000/9.
S. Amos Wako: E/CN.4/1990/22; E/CN.4/1991/36; E/CN.4/1992/30. Bacre Waly N’diaye: E/CN.4/1993/46; E/CN.4/1994/7; E/CN.4/1995/61 & Add.1; E/CN.4/1996/4; E/CN.4/1998/68 & Add.1. Asma Jahangir: E/CN.4/1999/39 & Add. 1; E/CN.4/2000/3 & Add.1. Reports of the Special Rapporteur on the Elimination of Religious Intolerance: Angelo Vidal d’Almeida: E/CN.4/1991/56; E/CN.4/1992/52; E/CN.4/1993/62 & Corr.1. Abdelfattah Amor: E/CN.4/1995/91/Add.1; E/CN.4/1997/91; E/CN.4/2000/65.
Radhika Coomaraswamy: E/CN.4/1999/68/Add.3; E/CN.4/2000/68. Note by Secretariat on Violations of Rights of Human Rights Defenders: E/CN.4/Sub.2/1999/4 & Add.2. Report of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Racism: Maurice Glélé-Ahanhanzo: E/CN.4/2000/16. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers: Param Cumaraswamy: E/CN.4/2000/61. Report of Representative of S-G on IDPs: Francis Deng: E/CN.4/2000/83. Directory: docs docs -> Application for acem docs -> Observational Assessment of Teaching Practices Teaching Assessment Initiative Proposal Submitted to The Teachers for a New Era project docs -> Traditional British values docs -> From Warfighters to Crimefighters: The Origins of Domestic Police Militarization docs -> Borzoi Club of America Register of Merit Program I. What is a Register Of Merit docs -> Protecting the rights of the child in the context of migration docs -> United Nations E/C. 12/Esp/5 docs -> 9th May 1950 the schuman declaration docs -> Getting To Outcomes® in Services for Homeless Veterans 10 Steps for Achieving Accountability Download 0.5 Mb. Share with your friends:
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