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	Candles for victims of Timor massacre by UN News & agencies Timor-Leste (East Timor)   13 November 2009   Thousands of mourners lit candles, sang hymns and prayed in East Timor on Thursday, honouring the victims of a massacre of pro-independence demonstrators by Indonesian troops 18 years ago.   Many called on the tiny nation"s leaders to seek justice against those responsible and help find the bodies of dozens of people missing since the shooting at the Santa Cruz graveyard in downtown Dili, Timor"s capital, on November 12, 1991. There was no official record of the death toll, but witness accounts put the number of dead in the hundreds.   Mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers clutched photos of dead relatives and held flowers as they walked from the Motael Catholic church to the scene of the bloodshed. After sunset, thousands of candles flickered from homes along Dili"s bay in what has become an annual memorial service since independence.   "My son is still missing," said 71-year-old Maria Lourenca, whose boy Antonio was a junior high school student at the time. "I want justice for his death. He was too young. The Indonesian soldiers who shot him should be punished."   Dramatic footage of the shooting and the wounded was captured by Western journalists and smuggled out of East Timor.   Some of the gunmen were clearly captured on video, but no one has ever been prosecuted for the killings. Dozens of victims remain missing nearly a decade after the end of a 24-year Indonesian occupation that wiped out a third of Timor"s population.   The failure to find victims of past crimes highlights East Timor"s ongoing struggle to come to terms with its violent history, which includes more than 250 years as a Portuguese colony before it became an Indonesian province. Some of the roughly 174,000 people who died during Jakarta"s rule were buried in mass graves that have never been discovered or exhumed.   Mourner Terezinha da Silva Ximenes, 65, asked for help to locate the body of her son.   "I beg our leaders ... to approach Indonesian authorities to show us the graves of my son and his other comrades so that we can give them a humane burial in accordance with our beliefs, our religion and our Timorese culture."   President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, icons of the country"s independence movement who spoke to the thousands attending the service, have rejected calls to put on trial more than 300 suspects, most of whom are believed to be at large in Indonesia.   "The great justice for the Timorese was gaining independence," said Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace laureate. Families on both sides of the conflict suffered, he said, but let us "forget our past and open a new era of mutual reconciliation with Indonesia".   Legal proceedings would open old wounds and may undermine the sensitive relationship with Indonesia maintained by the tiny nation of 1.2 million that only gained independence seven years ago.   "Killers should be treated like killers," said Chico Magaly, who survived the gunfire but lost his brother, Antonio. "I need justice. I don"t need the comments of politicians."   East Timor recently released an alleged militia leader accused in a 2003 UN indictment of murdering women, children and priests at a church in the town of Suai. Gusmao ordered Maternus Bere"s handover to Indonesia, in what rights groups say was an illegal act that violated the constitution.   The decision was made during intense negotiations with Indonesia, which insisted Bere be let go. He was brought to the Indonesian Embassy on August 30 during celebrations marking the anniversary of East Timor"s independence vote.   Bere, whose trial had been under preparation by prosecutors, was freed without consulting judges or a court hearing, highlighting the weakness of East Timor"s infant legal system. The case is being investigated by the Supreme Court.   Sept 2009   The United Nations has condemned the release of an Indonesian former militia leader accused of taking part in a massacre of civilians in East Timor in 1999.   The UN said earlier this week that Martenus Bere had been released on Sunday ahead of national celebrations commemorating 10 years since East Timor won independence from Indonesia in a UN-backed referendum.   UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon"s spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in a statement on Tuesday that the UN position was clear.   "If the reports are true, his release is contrary to the Security Council resolutions which set up the UN Mission in (East Timor) and seriously undermines the global principle of accountability for crimes against humanity," Okabe said.   "The UN"s firm position is that there can be no amnesty or impunity for serious crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.   "In that context, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights strongly opposes the release of someone for whom an arrest warrant of this nature has been established."   Bere was detained in East Timor on August 8, five years after being indicted for his role in the 1999 Suai Church massacre, in which up to 200 people were killed.   Timor"s leadership has been criticised for opposing prosecution for those responsible for abuses during Indonesia"s bloody 1975-1999 occupation of the East Timor, which killed up to 200,000 people.   President Jose Ramos Horta says restoring good relations with Indonesia is more important than "prosecutorial justice".   The opposition Fretilin party, however, says he is out of touch with the East Timorese people, many of whom continue to demand justice for gross human rights abuses committed during the Indonesian occupation.
	UN spotlights growing tragedy of enforced disappearances by Jeremy Sarkin   30 August 2009   A group of United Nations independent experts have highlighted the growing number of enforced disappearances worldwide, a terrible practice that it says remains underreported and has a particular impact on women and children.   In a statement to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, observed on 30 August, the UN Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances noted that it has dealt with over 50,000 cases since it was established in 1980.   But the practice “still remains severely underreported, particularly in certain regions of the world,” said the Group''s Chairperson, Jeremy Sarkin.   In addition, while enforced disappearance affects many people worldwide, it has a particular impact on women and children, according to the five-member Group, which noted that women often bear the brunt of the economic hardships that accompany a disappearance.   It added that when women are victims of disappearance themselves, they are particularly vulnerable to sexual and other forms of violence. Also, the disappearance of a child, or the loss of a parent as a consequence of enforced disappearance, is a serious violation of the rights of the child.   The Group voiced its concern at the measures being taken by Governments while countering terrorism and the implications for enforced disappearances, and stressed that arrests committed during military operations, arbitrary detentions and extraordinary renditions “can amount to enforced disappearances.”   It also called once again on States that have not signed and/or ratified the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance to do so as soon as possible.   “Its entry into force will help strengthen Governments'' capacities to reduce the number of disappearances and it will bolster the hopes and the demands for justice and truth by victims and their families,” stated the Group.
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