Searching for the truth Issues 28 - Documentation Center of Cambodia

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Number 28, April 2002
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Searching for the Truth ⎯ LEGAL
East Timor's Special Panel For Serious Crimes
(Continued from the March 2002 issue)
Starting Up
Regulation 2000/15 was passed without an
accompanying budget for the Serious Crimes Project.
Nevertheless, work was expected to commence
immediately. There were enormous difficulties in
“getting up and running” with no equipment,
personnel or office premises allocated (staff and
equipment were “loaned” from other departments).
There was infighting about which department within
UNTAET would be responsible for the high-profile
work. Much time and effort was spent during the first
few months on locating files and evidence scattered
between UNTAET’s different agencies. The cases of
the many low-ranking militiamen, who had already
been held in detention for some time and who were
continuing to be arrested by UNTAET’s law and
order agencies, had to be processed as a matter of
urgency. Once the Serious Crimes Unit was operational,
the minimal resources that were allocated to the project
hindered effective investigation of the complete range
of crimes committed in East Timor and led to a focus
on prosecuting crimes under domestic law rather than
as international crimes.
It is therefore vital that adequate resources and
appropriately skilled staff are made available for the
KR Tribunal at start-up, and that there are clear lines
of authority and responsibility. Whether with or
without the UN, the government needs to have
secured funding for the project. This would have to
link into a projected lifetime which is a matter of
speculation, but what is clear from East Timor is that
the project should not be started if there is no money
for it. There should ideally be a “grace period” to
enable the institutions to be set up and staffed before
work commences. Stakeholders must realize that
Suzannah Linton
demands for swift results cannot be fulfilled if the
project is to be a meaningful and effective vehicle of
justice. Although much work has already been done
in the collation and analysis of documentary materials
by institutions such as DC-Cam, genocide and other
international crimes involve highly complex
investigations and long-drawn out trials. It is not an
easy or quick matter to investigate, prosecute or try
such crimes. Adequate resources, firstly for
investigators, the offices of the co-prosecutors and
the co-investigating judges, and the chambers
themselves, must be provided to enable them to
perform their professional duties in accordance with
international standards.
Strengthening the Criminal Justice System
East Timor’s Serious Crimes Project suffered
greatly from being part of a dangerously weak
criminal justice system. Some of this weakness was
avoidable; some of it was due to the enormity of the
task that UNTAET faced when it rushed to create a
justice system from the charred ruins left behind by
Indonesia. Many feel that UNTAET proceeded in
pursuance of a political need to establish a system,
without a strategic vision or master plan, consultation
of the East Timorese, and without sufficient focus on
the development of local capacity or on the viability
of that system. Poor administration of the courts has
been identified as the source of many of the
shortcomings of the justice system, including the
Serious Crimes project. Interpretation and translation
into the four official languages has been both of
inadequate quality and quantity. In the absence of
proper transcription, there have been major problems
with the accuracy of court records. Court administration
and the development of court registries were severely
neglected, and judges ended up serving as
Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam)