Soldier found dead with gunshot wounds

DILI, East Timor (JP): A soldier was gunned down by an unidentified person in Dili on Sunday.

Private Marchal Ximenes, a village security guard, was killed with 11 rounds from an M16, military commander Col. Tono Suratman said. He was assigned to the Bahaneo hamlet in Liaruka village in Ossu district, Viequeque regency.

"He was murdered in a sadistic manner with 11 bullets and slash wounds," Tono said on Thursday.

Marchal, he said, was on his way to the Ossu Desima village near his home. Around 1 p.m. he entered the hamlet with relatives and the group was then blocked by four unknown, armed and masked men, one of them using an M16. The weapon was found at the site, he said.

Tono quoted witnesses, Marchal's relatives, who said the men immediately attacked him and left the others unharmed.

The culprits were being sought by the military to bring them to trial, he said, "not because of revenge."

The motive, Tono said, was " terrorizing soldiers" and the Falintil separatist group was responsible. The attack on the low ranking soldier follows a similar one earlier this month.

The attack was misguided, Tono said, because the military would instead be increasingly committed to securing the area and carrying out their duties.

On Jan.3, two members of a proreferendum group were killed during an attack by some 100 people on a sentry post manned by armed civilian guards in Ainaro regency, 250 kilometers south of Dili.

Col. Tono had also blamed the incident on the Falintil.

The victims were killed by the guards after the mob had ignored warning shots, he said. (33)