This report contains the text of an oral statement about human rights in East Timor delivered on 23 July 1996 before the UN Special Committee on Decolonization. It discusses the failure of the international community and the Indonesian government to end the pattern of gross human rights violations in East Timor. While Amnesty International welcomes a number of initiatives that have been taken during the last year, it remains concerned that measures taken were cosmetic, principally directed at the appeasement of international and domestic critics. In the meantime, the human rights situation deteriorated further with continued reports of arbitrary arrest, torture, “disappearance”, extrajudicial executions and unfair political trials. An appendix lists the minimum requirements for a UN human rights office in Indonesia.
