At least 20 killed in E. Timor after pro-independence rally

At least 20 killed in E. Timor after pro-independence rally

DILI, East Timor (JP): At least 20 people, including the nephew of former governor Mario Viegas Carrascalao, were confirmed dead when armed pro-Indonesian militia rampaged unchecked through Dili on Saturday.

Dili police chief Col. Timbul Silaen told The Jakarta Post that 12 bodies were found in the house of pro-independence figure Manuel Carrascalao. Five others were found in the house of David Ximenes, the deputy chairman of the National Council of Resistance of East Timor (CNRT), an umbrella group for the pro- independence movement. Three people were killed on the street in clashes between pro-independence supporters and the militia, he said.

The incidents had prompted Dili Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo to call off a mass, scheduled to be held on Sunday involving about 1,000 pro-integration members.

Earlier on Saturday a team of the National Commission of Human Rights arrived in Dili for a 10-day visit to follow up the establishment of the East Timor Independence Commission on Human Rights and to monitor Liquisa, where bloody clashes took place earlier this month.

Pro-Indonesian militia went on the rampage after holding a rally in Dili on Saturday morning, AFP reported.

Eurico Guterres, the leader of the Aitarak (Thorn) militia, told the morning parade his militia was launching a purge to weed out pro-independence supporters from the administration.

"Today, we are going to each government office, we will rid them of civil servants who are against Indonesia ... It is not right for them to accept Indonesian money and facilities," he added.

Witnesses said around 1,500 militiamen drove round the city's deserted streets on Saturday in a convoy of some 25 trucks, firing in the air and attacking the homes of known pro- independence activists.

An AFP reporter at the scene said the assault began with stones before it intensified as the militia advanced into the front garden and the reception room of Carrascalao's house, shooting and smashing down doors. There were about 150 refugees in the house.

The refugees, who had been camping in the back garden could find no way out, barred by high walls. Some 30 of them lay crying in fear on the floor of a back dining room.

Only 300 meters away, visiting Irish Foreign Minister David Andrews was meeting with Nobel Laureate Bishop Belo in his house.

Manuelito Carrascalao, the 18-year-old son of the former MP, was killed in the attack, his family said.

The AFP reporter and another French reporter emerged from the front of the house shouting that they were journalists. They were hit and threatened at gunpoint by the militia, before one of their leaders bundled them into a car and sent them back to their hotel with orders to stay there.

Shortly afterwards, a second group of militia armed with wooden poles entered the hotel and demanded the journalists hand over film from their cameras.

No troops or police were in sight and there was no attempt to stop the attack on the house, which is close to the governor's office, the AFP reporter said.

The militia also attacked the office of the Suara Timor Timur (the Voice of East Timor) daily.

On Friday, pro-independence rebels ambushed an Indonesian military convoy in East Timor and killed the soldier brother of Jakarta's ambassador at large for East Timor, the military and his brother said.

Second Sergeant Bernadino da Lopez da Cruz, the brother of ambassador Francisco da Lopez da Cruz, died in the shootout near Laclubar in a mountainous area 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of Dili.

District police chief Lieutenant Colonel J.A. Sumampao confirmed that a rebel group had shot da Cruz while he was on a logistics run to Soibada village.

Meanwhile former East Timor governor Mario Viegas Carrascalao said that about 30 people were killed on Saturday.

Carrascalao, who said he received hourly reports from Dili, said there could be more victims as hundreds of refugees who had holed up at the home of his brother, Manuel Carrascalao, had been taken away by pro-Indonesia militia. (anr)