Serious Crimes Unit

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The Serious Crimes Unit SCU (official name in German : Department for Serious Crimes ) was a United Nations- established prosecution to prosecute human rights violations in East Timor in the context of the 1999 independence referendum .

prehistory

In the 1999 referendum, the inhabitants of the country occupied by Indonesia were supposed to decide whether they wanted to remain under Jakarta's rule as an autonomous part of Indonesia or whether they wanted full independence. Despite attempts at intimidation by the military and militias, the majority opted for independence. Then the Indonesian Operation Donner led to a final wave of violence. In one month, around 2,000 people were murdered, hundreds of women and girls raped, three quarters of the population were displaced and 75% of the country's infrastructure was destroyed in this massive military operation.

job

The SCU was founded by UNTAET , the UN interim administration of East Timor, in 1999, in accordance with UN resolution 1272 of the UN Security Council . It was supposed to prosecute crimes against humanity , war crimes and individual crimes such as murder, torture and rape that were committed in East Timor between January 1 and October 25, 1999. All charges were brought before the special chamber of the district court in Dili , the Special Panels for Serious Crimes ( SPSC ). In 2000, a court of appeal for judgments by the SPSC, the Court of Appeal, was set up . From 2002 to 2003 there was a 19 month period in which it was inactive until it was replaced by the newly established Tribunal de Recurso de Timor-Leste .

The court consisted of an East Timorese judge and two foreign judges. Even after East Timor's independence on May 20, 2002, the SCU continued to work with UN staff under the authority of the East Timorese Attorney General Longuinhos Monteiro . In November 2004 the investigation by the SCU ended.

Result

On May 20, 2005, SCU and SPSC finished their work in East Timor. The UN-based judiciary had tried 391 people, but 316 of them were in Indonesia. 87 defendants, mostly fellow travelers in pro-Indonesian militias , were jailed. Because the governments in Jakarta and Dili did not cooperate with the court or did not want to strain the mutual relationship, Indonesian officials from the administration and the military were not brought to justice. During the 2006 riots in East Timor , the SCU office was ransacked and important evidence against Indonesian suspects was destroyed.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman: Political Economy of Human Rights. Vol. 1. The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism. Cape. 3.4.4. "East Timor: Genocide on the Sly". South End Press, Boston 1979. ISBN 0-89608-090-0
  2. ↑ a b Office of the General Prosecutor of the Republic Timor-Leste ( Memento from January 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ East-West-Center: THE SERIOUS CRIMES TRIALS IN EAST TIMOR: AN OVERVIEW , accessed on May 16, 2017.
  4. ↑ Monika Schlicher: East Timor faces up to its past ( Memento of the original from November 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , missio 2005, ISSN 1618-6222 (PDF; 304 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.missio-hilft.de 
  5. ↑ ABC, May 31, 2006, Serious Crimes Unit office looted in Dili