600 E. Timorese murdered in 1999

600 E. Timorese murdered in 1999

DILI, East Timor (AFP): More than 600 people were murdered in East Timor last year, UN officials said here on Friday.

A total of 627 victims, killed between January and October last year, were the only cases known to the UN civilian police, said Rafik Hodzic of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).

"It is likely to rise," Hodzic told AFP.

Local human rights experts expect the final death toll from last year's terror campaign to be far higher. They said the total number of victims would not be known until all East Timorese refugees in Indonesian West Timor were able to return home.

Militias, allegedly backed by members of the Indonesian armed forces, conducted a violent campaign of murder and intimidation in the month leading to the August 30 referendum.