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ABC Online - Australia
20 April 2006

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East Timor police accused of h

ELEANOR HALL: As the United Nations prepares for its final pull-out from East Timor next month, a human rights report has levelled allegations of torture and abuse against the local police.

Released just a few hours ago, the report by Human Rights Watch documents dozens of cases of abuse by prisoners in custody.

And the organisation's Asia Director, Brad Adams, has been telling our Indonesia Correspondent, Geoff Thompson, that East Timor is in danger of developing a culture of impunity for officials who commit abuses.

BRAD ADAMS: One of the saddest things we�ve heard from a lot of East Timorese was that they�re now comparing their police to the police under the Indonesians and they're comparing a colonial police force which was very brutal � the atrocities are well documented � with what they�re facing now.

That may be because a lot of the people that used to work for the Indonesian police and have stayed on and learned very, you know, brutal methods of policing from the Indonesians, but I think that we expected that there would be greater political leadership, greater moral leadership and the effect of the international involvement would mean that there wouldn�t be such wanton violence.

GEOFF THOMPSON: What sort of abuses are we seeing in East Timor at the hands of East Timorese police?

BRAD ADAMS: Well, one of the curious things is we didn�t see a lot of torture to beat confessions out of people. We saw a lot of torture just to beat people. It seemed like it was punitive, that they were trying to punish people for crimes or in some cases they were just using their power to settle local scores.

Essentially, the abuse was not very high tech. It was physical, it was groups of police officers beating up individuals, kicking them, hitting them with sticks, punching them, you know, just meting out lots of brutality and then sort of leaving them, not providing medical care afterwards.

And it�s not clear why this is happening. This seems to be violence for its own sake.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Is it perhaps true that any force which has the ability to inflict force on other people tend to abuse it, unless there are some checks and balances on the use of that force?

BRAD ADAMS: Absolutely. There�s no major urban police force in the world that doesn�t have problems with police brutality. The reason that it�s less in some places is a good culture of policing, professionalism, but also the kind of restraints that you are alluding to � internal oversight process, professional ethics process, an independent police review commission, the court system and an independent judiciary. I mean, all those things are very important and all those things are largely lacking in East Timor.

There have been some efforts to build up a professional ethics office in the police - there�s an ombudsperson, there�s a human rights officer in the Prime Minister�s office for example, but none of these institutions are strong and none of them really have the authority to take direct disciplinary action.

It really comes down right now to the Ministry of Interior, the national police chief, taking this very seriously while those institutions are being built up.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The United Nations is in the process of pulling out of East Timor for good. This is not a strong indication that it is a robust and fair-handed democracy going forward, is it?

BRAD ADAMS: Well, there�s a lot of worrying signs; the military is in crisis; thousands of soldiers have been on strike off and on and a lot of institutions are still very weak.

And I think the United Nations and donors need to stay engaged as long as possible, not to treat East Timor as a protector of a colony, but to really help it get on its feet.

It was a long period of degradation under the Indonesians and it takes a long time to build a society back up. You can knock it down much more quickly that you can build it.

And so we really hope that the Australians for example, stick it out, and other regional powers help them out.

It is not just a matter of having for instance, a little classroom course on police ethics and then ticking that box, it�s the question of providing technical assistance, monitoring, pressure, political engagement � all those things you have say for these problems to be improved.

ELEANOR HALL: And that�s the Asia Director of Human Rights Watch Brad Adams speaking to the ABC�s Indonesia Correspondent Geoff Thompson.

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ABC Online - Australia20 April 2006

East Timor police accused of h

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ABC Online - Australia
20 April 2006