Such
acts are crimes of war according to the Geneva Convention’s Common
Article 3, which applies to the laws of war and internal armed conflicts.
The article sets forth basic protections and standards of conduct
to which the State must adhere, prohibiting violence against civilians
and flagrant violations of human dignity. Furthermore, under customary
international law, Indonesia arguably stands guilty for its forced
movement of the East Timorese population and its vast, wanton destruction
of civilian property.
The Commission unequivocally recommended that the United Nations establish
an international human rights tribunal to bring those responsible
to justice, both to appease the East Timorese, and to reassert the
authority of the UN Security Council after Indonesia had blatantly
violated its agreement with the Council to provide security during
the UN-sponsored referendum.
Not surprisingly, the Indonesian government protested, claiming that
such a tribunal would be a violation of its national sovereignty.
Instead, Jakarta vowed that it would prosecute those responsible for
gross human rights violations and war crimes in East Timor. In turn,
the Security Council abandoned its own recommendations, and announced
that the United Nations would call on the Indonesian government to
adhere to its pledge. Given the well-documented shortcomings of the
Indonesian legal system and the lack of any specific laws that would
enable the government to prosecute soldiers for human rights abuses
or crimes of war, it seemed unlikely from the start that Jakarta would
actually follow through with its promises. Thus, Annan insisted that
the United Nations retained the right to commence an international
tribunal at some unspecified point in the future if Indonesia failed
to effectively mete out justice.
A year and half later, however, the Indonesian government has yet
to commence a single trial concerning crimes committed in East Timor,
and the United Nations has done little pressure Jakarta into doing
so. Given the United Nations efforts to establish courts for the atrocities
in Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Cambodia and Sierra Leone, and given its unprecedented
mandate in East Timor in which it assumed sovereign control of a nation,
it seems out of keeping that the United Nations has not moved more
forcibly.
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