Dili tense as deadline for 'extermination' passes

Dili tense as deadline for 'extermination' passes

JAKARTA (Agencies): East Timor's capital of Dili was tense but
quiet on Saturday despite a threat by a pro-Jakarta group to
begin cleansing the city of independence supporters.

"I went to bed around 4 a.m. and I did not hear of any
violence in Dili so far," said a spokeswoman for the
proindependence National Council for the Timorese Resistance,
Reuters reported.

Amnesty International said on Thursday that a group calling
itself Red Blood Commando had circulated a document in Dili in
which it vowed to attack independence supporters beginning on
midnight on Friday.

"After the passing of the deadline, we will conclude that
everyone left in Dili, be they man or woman, old or young, child
or adult, is an anti-integrationist who should and must be
exterminated and wiped out," the document said.

A ballot on the government's autonomy offer for East Timor is
due to be held in August, but some observers fear the pro-Jakarta
militia, with military backing, is attempting to derail the vote
through violence and intimidation.

On Friday, 11 bodies, which police said were possibly of
prointegration militia members, were found in an irrigation ditch
in Ermera regency, southwest of Dili.

AFP reported police on Saturday questioned six people
regarding the mass grave in Bauhati hamlet, Hatolia subdistrict.

Violence in East Timor has escalated since January, when
Jakarta said it would grant the former Portuguese colony
independence if the Timorese rejected its offer of autonomy.

Meanwhile, the management and staff of Suara Timor Timur (STT)
daily are preparing to publish again on Monday after their office
was attacked by prointegration groups on April 17. An iron gate
will be installed in front of the office's entrance and police
will guard the office for at least three months, a reporter told
The Jakarta Post.

A day before the attack, the paper printed a statement from
Dili-based prointegration leader Eurico Guterres guaranteeing the
safety of all reporters, both foreign and local.

Reporters were attacked in Liquica regency a day before the
alleged murder of at least 25 people on April 6. Reporters also
have been threatened while attempting to reach areas of reported
unrest. Reporters from STT said intelligence officers had
attempted to contact them over the past few days.

Pro-Indonesian militia in the Bobonaro district on Friday
assaulted and threatened to kill an East Timorese working as an
interpreter for an Australian journalist, Brian Woodley of The
Australian daily told AFP on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Reuters reported that the European Union in
a statement said it was "deeply concerned" by reports that
prointegration militia had physically threatened activists
campaigning for independence.

The EU called on the Indonesian government to ensure its
military met its obligation to keep the peace in the territory.

As part of the peace effort in East Timor, Antara reported
that the new Commission for Stability and Peace held talks which
were attended by Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, one of
the commission's members. The commission was launched by the
National Commission on Human Rights.