WASHINGTON (CNS): More than three years after East Timor voted for independence, access to adequate health care, education and basic human rights remains out of reach for most people in the country, said an East Timorese human rights worker.
Jose Luis de Oliveira, who is director of the Association for Law, Human Rights and Justice, known by the Indonesian acronym HAK, said East Timorese institutions are unable to serve citizens due to a myriad of economic and social problems.
At the root of the problems is the absence of justice for the perpetrators of the violence that followed a 1999 UN-sponsored referendum, when East Timorese overwhelmingly rejected Indonesian rule.
More than 1000 people were killed and most of East Timor’s infrastructure was destroyed by militias and retreating Indonesian troops following the vote. An ad hoc human rights trial conducted in Jakarta, Indonesia, acquitted senior level Indonesian military officials, while convicted militia leaders received minor sentences.
