Timor mourns slain priests

Timor mourns slain priests

DILI, East Timor (Reuters): Thousands gathered at Dili's cathedral on Saturday to pay their last respects to three slain priests whose bodies were found in a mass grave near the Timor border.

As more than 2,000 grieved amid scenes of wailing and tears, members of an Indonesian inquiry team said they were following up unconfirmed reports of other mass graves in the Indonesian half of the island.

Mourners kept an all night vigil for Fathers Hilario Madeira, 42, Francisco Soares, 34, and Tarcisius Dewanto, 34, whose bodies were uncovered with 23 others at a location just inside Indonesia's West Timor earlier in the week.

The men are believed to have been killed during a massacre in the southwestern town of Suai in early September, as anti- independence militia greeted a vote to break away from Indonesia with a wave of bloody violence.

Evidence from the site backed this up, and confirmed witness accounts of the killings, investigators said.

The bodies were found at Oeluli beach, some 20 km (13 miles) from Suai and a short distance from the border. It is the first mass grave to be discovered in West Timor.