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Dili. East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta on Wednesday denied claims by Amnesty International that he would support an international tribunal for abuses committed during Indonesia’s occupation.

Amnesty had claimed he had told it he was in favor of the establishment of an international tribunal for crimes committed during the 1975-99 occupation, should the United Nations Security Council set it up.

But Ramos-Horta said the rights group had “inaccurately reported and thus misrepresented” a discussion he had with its members at the University of Bradford in England on Friday.

“I remain firmly unconvinced that the interests of the victims of my country and the cause of peace and democracy are best served with an international tribunal,” he said in a statement.

The president said he told the meeting he would not oppose an international tribunal, but he would under no circumstances push for it to be established.

East Timor formally gained independence in 2002 after a bloody 24-year Indonesian occupation that had led to the deaths of as many as 200,000 people.

An Indonesia-East Timor reconciliation commission found in 2008 that while gross human rights were committed by Indonesian forces, there should be no more trials or arrests.

Ramos-Horta has said restoring good ties with Indonesia was more important than “prosecutorial justice.”

Agence France-Presse