East Timor: A long way from international justice.

from THE JAKARTA POST -- WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 -- PAGE 6 Mentioning Timor Leste not only brings to mind a state that was once Indonesia's 27th province, but also a place where gross human rights violations took place before, during and after its UN-sponsored August 1999 referendum.

According to Geoffrey Robinson (East Timor 1999; Crimes Against Humanity, 2006), around 400,000 people were forced to leave their hometowns following massive riots after the referendum, 70 percent of buildings across the territory were burned and destroyed, and an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 people were killed.

But 10 years later, Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta reiterated again that …