Amnesty International has warned the United Nations against big cutbacks in its mission in East Timor, saying the rule of law and human rights could suffer after independence.
The tiny southeast Asian territory is expected to become formally independent from Indonesia early in 2002 after holding its first democratic elections on August 30th.
The human rights organization said a mission it sent to East Timor earlier this year "found that law and order is barely being maintained, justice is not being administered effectively and the human rights of the East Timorese people cannot be guaranteed."
Considerable international support will be needed over the next few years to help the future East Timor government draft laws for protecting human rights and train its police, the military, the judiciary and new government officials, Amnesty said in a report released at UN headquarters.
The report was issued as the UN Security Council considered changes in the future role of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor, known as UNTAET.
The 15-nation council is scheduled to hold a public debate on Monday on a report issued this week by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The report concluded the mission should be scaled back but peacekeeping forces had to remain on alert against militias in neighboring West Timor as long as Indonesia failed to disband them.