PRESS BRIEFING BY DEPUTY LEGAL ADVISER, UN MISSION IN EAST TIMOR

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING BY DEPUTY LEGAL ADVISER, UN MISSION IN EAST TIMOR

The 23 East Timorese prosecutors and judges now serving at district courts in Dili, Baucau and Oekussi were the first ever locals to fill these roles in East Timor, Hansjoerg Strohmeyer, the Deputy Legal Adviser to the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), told journalists at a briefing at United Nations Headquarters this afternoon. The first seven had been appointed by UNTAET on 7 January, and additional appointments were expected within the next two months.

However, none of these people had any prosecutorial or judicial experience, or any experience in the administration of justice, he continued, so training and educating them was of great importance. The UNTAET had set up a mentoring programme. It had invited and hired experienced judges and prosecutors, from civil law countries to advise these new judges and prosecutors in performing their duties, managing offices and managing courtrooms, on-the-job. Such programmes would continue for quite some time.

There had been no primary trial in East Timor yet, but rather some 40 or 50 hearings by an investigating judge, of people who were either detained by the INTERFET international force or by the UNTAET civilian police or peacekeepers. Currently some 65 people were held in the prison in Dili, about 20 of whom were members of militias, or other individuals suspected of participating in the September 1999 violence.

The UNTAET placed a major emphasis on building a credible and viable judiciary, he said. One of its greatest challenges would be the prosecution of violations of humanitarian or human rights law in East Timor, and in particular of crimes against humanity. The first trials of this nature were expected to start in June or July. Their prosecution, in a fair and credible manner, was very important, and would have an impact on both the reconciliation process in East Timor and on the likelihood of people returning from West Timor to East Timor.

Credible trials would also support ongoing investigations by Indonesia of members of its armed forces or the militias. The Memorandum of Understanding between Indonesia and East Timor was an invaluable support to this process. It had been in the interest of the Indonesian authorities and of East Timor to establish, as quickly as possible, a framework of cooperation and mutual assistance in legal, judicial and human rights-related matters.

The Attorney-General of Indonesia had been most interested to conclude the memorandum to help Indonesian authorities carry out investigations in East Timor, and vice-versa, and to allow participation in exhumations and forensic examinations and, even more importantly, in access to key witnesses. The memorandum also opened the possibility for "a transfer of individuals" from West Timor to East Timor to stand trial in East Timorese courts (East Timor, not yet being an independent State, could not be a party to an extradition treaty). The UNTAET had established mixed panels of East Timorese and international judges that

UNTAET Briefing - 2 - 19 April 2000

would preside over cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious crimes, such as sexual offences.

Asked whether the time available between the appointment of East Timorese jurists and the trials expected in June was adequate to train these new judges and prosecutors, he noted that commencing trials in June or July did not mean concluding them in June or July. Some of the prosecutors had already started work, he explained, and INTERFET in particular had gathered a lot of evidence for some cases, which were now almost watertight, meaning that lengthy investigations were not required.

The credibility of these trials would be ensured because the model under consideration for Cambodia was being used in East Timor, he explained in response to another question. Trials were prosecuted by teams composed of East Timorese and international staff, helped by a prosecution support unit composed of experienced practitioners and academics -- people who would support the making of cases. Expertise and experience would thus be injected into the process.

The same applied to the judges, he continued, where regulation 2000/11 had established panels, that included international judges, to preside over the trial of serious crimes. These presiding panels would be composed of three judges -- two international and one East Timorese. Constructing the panels this way would also alleviate some of the pressure East Timorese judges might otherwise have faced within their communities, given the potential for difference between community expectations and the requirements of just legal processes.

At the same time as the judges and prosecutors were appointed, six defence lawyers had been identified. They would form the basis of a pool of public defenders, he explained, answering a further question. These people would be available to defend anyone who was arrested, and in fact the rights of all those so far detained to his or her own lawyer had been respected.

When asked, he explained that promoting employment was perhaps the number one priority of UNTAET at present, and the Transitional Administrator had taken it upon himself to speed up employment programmes. In East Timor, things must really be built "from scratch". A high proportion of the population were relatively unskilled, and employment programmes had not yet fully unfolded. The "administrative gentry" roles -- previously occupied by Indonesians -- must be filled, but there were not enough people available with the skills needed to be senior administrators. Capacity building was one of UNTAET's main tasks, he concluded.

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