Dili  - The international community should consider setting up a tribunal for serious crimes in East Timor if former occupier Indonesia and East Timor were unwilling to prosecute suspects, a United Nations official said Tuesday.

The United Nations has criticized East Timor's government for the release from jail last month of Martenus Bere, a former pro-Indonesia militia leader accused of taking part in a 1999 massacre at a church in Suai district, in which up to 200 people died.

"If the two countries ... are not willing and are not intending to prosecute people who committed crimes against humanity, there is the principle of universal jurisdiction for these crimes," said Louis Gentile, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in East Timor.

Gentile said it was the responsibility of the international community to find a way to bring those who committed crimes against humanity to justice.

Gentile said the release of Bere was political because it did not follow legal procedures.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was annexed by Indonesia in 1976. The territory voted for independence in a UN-sponsored ballot in 1999, which was marred by violence blamed on pro-Jakarta militiamen and Indonesian troops.

According to a report by a UN-sponsored truth commission, the Indonesian occupation led to about 100,000 deaths from killings, starvation and disease.

The territory became formally independent in 2002.

Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to put reconciliation and friendship ahead of prosecution of those who committed crimes during the occupation. (dpa)