The UN commission of inquiry on East Timor has found evidence that______. [br]

Meanwhile a UN commission of inquiry on East Timor says it has found clear evidence of military involvement in the violence that erupted after the Aug. 30 pro-independence referendum. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the commission has provided its initial findings to the top UN human rights official Mary Robinson.
     The 5-member commission of inquiry has just completed the series of meetings to review the materials it gathered in East Timor. The panel of human rights experts recently spent 9 days in East Timor investigating allegations of human rights abuse. A United Nations official Tom McCarthy accompanied the group to East Timor. He calls the trip" very intense". He says the 5 experts were in the capital Dill when UN forces discovered the bodies of East Timorese who had been buried during the violence. He says the experts gathered evidence from more than 150 people during their visit. Mr. McCarthy says the UN experts saw for themselves the widespread destruction of property and interviewed many East Timorese who had been forced into exile by militiamen He says witnesses spoke of the terror that caused them to flee. He says the commission of inquiry heard testimony of the destruction of evidence including removal of bodies from the site of killings. The commission of inquiry on East Timor has to submit a report of its findings to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan by the end of the year. The report will then go on to the Security Council. The commission says investigations into alleged atrocities should continue and those responsible for crime should be brought to justice However, the experts do not say whether they believe a war crimes tribunal similar to those for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda should be established. Lisa Schlein, for VOA News, Geneva.