Global Policy Forum

By Mark Dodd

The United Nations Serious Crimes Unit, in charge of gathering evidence to prosecute those responsible for the violence which swept East Timor in 1999, is on the point of collapse. Morale is at rock bottom and qualified investigators are resigning or choosing not to renew their contracts, amid claims the unit is chronically under-equipped and incompetently managed. Revelations of the crimes unit's problems follow disclosure by the Herald of two secret reports detailing the results of investigations into the bloody events linked to East Timor's independence vote.

The reports - one the Indonesian Government's own investigation and the other by special UN rapporteur Mr James Dunn - confirmed the involvement of senior Indonesian military figures in the planning and arming of the militias responsible for the violence and revealed details of several mass killings. No-one has yet been tried for crimes related to these events.

The UN is aware of the problems with its crimes unit. In January it sent a senior official from the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague, Ms Mary Fisk, to report on problems at the task force now dubbed by its own staff the "not so serious crimes unit".

Over the past fortnight there have been three resignations including two senior investigators, one of whom was in charge of determining responsibility for the murders of 70 independence supporters in the Oecussi enclave within West Timor.

The Serious Crimes Unit is currently without a forensic pathologist although more than 30 sets of human remains are awaiting examination in Dili. A replacement from Canada is expected to arrive this month. One Australian Federal Police officer working at the unit is investigating on his own more than 300 individual homicides that occurred in Bobonaro and Ermera districts, including the murders of UN staff.

One investigator said at times he wondered if the Serious Crimes Unit and the UN transitional administration were on the same side. "They are holding reconciliation negotiations with militia leaders we want to arrest," he said.

Mr Mohamed Othman, the UN chief prosecutor in East Timor, admitted yesterday there was a shortage of competent investigators. "We need additional investigators. We need them in order to finish investigations within a certain time frame," he told the Herald, adding that specialist investigators in homicide and sex crimes were urgently required to fill existing vacancies. However, Mr Othman, a Tanzanian judge with experience at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, said he still expected indictments for crimes against humanity to be handed down against senior Indonesian military commanders and civil administrators by the end of the year.

By June he said at least six cases would be ready to go to trial involving army-backed militia killings committed in Liquica church, Cailaco, Maliana police station, Oecussi, the murder of priests and church workers in Los Palos, and a rape case committed in Lolotoi. "In these cases, which are all crimes against humanity, we would have a minimum of 60 accused ranging from militia executioners to army commanders. "These cases will give a good indication of criminality of all the actors at a district level, then we move on to cases of command responsibility," he said. Other staff of the Serious Crimes Unit are not so optimistic. Many blame the Norwegian head of the unit, Mr Oyvind Olsen.

Mr Olsen arrived in East Timor last year and staff believe he has little understanding of the situation that existed in 1999 and has been tardy in his support of prompt investigations of major crime scenes. "You have good people who are committed and want to achieve results, yet they are getting so frustrated they are leaving," a senior UN official close to the Serious Crimes Unit, who asked not to be named, said. "The Serious Crimes Unit is not going to last forever - maybe one or two years. Evidence decays, memories fade. "It is crucial investigations are done swiftly and systematically after the crime was committed."