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05 September 2000
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HR/00/61
5 September 2000
HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS RESTATES COMMITMENT TO EAST TIMOR ON "DAY FILLED WITH PAIN OF REMEMBERING"
Below are excerpts from a message from United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson on the occasion of the anniversary on 6 September of the massacre in Suai, East Timor, in which over 100 people were killed. The High Commissioner visited Suai on 6 August of this year.
"On the eve of the sad anniversary of the Suai massacre, I would like to express my deep sympathy to the people of Suai. I cannot forget the gracious and dignified way all the community of Suai welcomed me a few short weeks ago, nor the morning I spent on the second day of my visit to East Timor. I was very glad to have had the opportunity to honour all those who died one year ago, and the opportunity Father Rene, of Suai's church, afforded me to meet with the survivors and the families of victims of human rights abuses.
The sixth of September is a terrible day for the community of Suai, filled with the pain of remembering. Once again, I want to offer you my most profound expressions of solidarity. I assure you of my commitment to do what I can to assist the people of East Timor in confronting the past in order to sow the seeds of a peaceful future.
I am particularly concerned to provide help for the voluntary return and the general promotion of human rights for those East Timorese refugees in West Timor. I am also determined to be of assistance to East Timor efforts to trace all those whose whereabouts and fate remain unknown to their loved ones. On both of these matters, I am consulting urgently with all the relevant authorities and will soon take action.
I urge now the people of Suai as well as all the East and West Timorese to build a culture of peace and reconciliation based on justice and accountability."
5 September 2000
HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS RESTATES COMMITMENT TO EAST TIMOR ON "DAY FILLED WITH PAIN OF REMEMBERING"
Below are excerpts from a message from United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson on the occasion of the anniversary on 6 September of the massacre in Suai, East Timor, in which over 100 people were killed. The High Commissioner visited Suai on 6 August of this year.
"On the eve of the sad anniversary of the Suai massacre, I would like to express my deep sympathy to the people of Suai. I cannot forget the gracious and dignified way all the community of Suai welcomed me a few short weeks ago, nor the morning I spent on the second day of my visit to East Timor. I was very glad to have had the opportunity to honour all those who died one year ago, and the opportunity Father Rene, of Suai's church, afforded me to meet with the survivors and the families of victims of human rights abuses.
The sixth of September is a terrible day for the community of Suai, filled with the pain of remembering. Once again, I want to offer you my most profound expressions of solidarity. I assure you of my commitment to do what I can to assist the people of East Timor in confronting the past in order to sow the seeds of a peaceful future.
I am particularly concerned to provide help for the voluntary return and the general promotion of human rights for those East Timorese refugees in West Timor. I am also determined to be of assistance to East Timor efforts to trace all those whose whereabouts and fate remain unknown to their loved ones. On both of these matters, I am consulting urgently with all the relevant authorities and will soon take action.
I urge now the people of Suai as well as all the East and West Timorese to build a culture of peace and reconciliation based on justice and accountability."