Portugal guarding Guterres' family

Portugal guarding Guterres' family

LISBON (Reuters): Portugal has put the family of a former
Timorese militia leader under 24-hour guard because of death
threats, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

The wife and four children of former pro-Indonesia militia
chief Eurico Guterres have been in Portugal for about a month and
are under tight security, spokesman Horacio Vale Cesar said.

"This is not a political case," he said. "This has everything
to do with the physical and psychological welfare of the woman
and children involved."

Guterres led the Indonesian-backed militia in the bloody run-
up to the 1999 referendum that set the tiny Southeast Asian
territory of East Timor on the road to independence.

An Indonesian court convicted him of inciting violence and he
was released from jail in June.