Troops to be dispatched after attacks kill three in East Timor

Troops to be dispatched after attacks kill three in East Timor

Agence France-Presse, Dili

United Nations and East Timorese troops will be sent to guard a district where attackers killed three villagers over the weekend, official sources said on Monday.

A gang armed with automatic rifles stormed into the villages of Tiarelelo and Lobano in East Timor's Atsabe district on Saturday night, killing three people including a village chief and his son. Several people were injured.

Presidential chief of staff Agio Pereira said the attackers were pro-Jakarta militiamen and those killed were former resistance leaders during Indonesian rule.

It was the worst violence since the Indonesian military and their local militia proxies withdrew from East Timor in 1999. Pereira denied earlier reports that four people had died, saying only three people were killed.

"The local people recognized them as (pro-Indonesian) militiamen," Pereira told AFP. But he said he did not know if the attackers had acted on orders.

"We're looking into this matter," he said.

"The people killed were local leaders of the CNRT (the resistance group during Indonesian occupation). The motive is political," Pereira said.

He said UN peacekeepers had been dispatched to Atsabe but did not say how many.

East Timor Defense Force chief Brig. Gen. Taur Matan Ruak said he would soon send soldiers to the district. He did not say how many would be sent but a source in the force said 180 troops would be dispatched.

Witnesses said some of the attackers wore ninja-style masks. They said they believed they were pro-Indonesian militiamen, who laid waste to East Timor after the territory voted for independence in a 1999 referendum.

One of the witnesses, Flaviano, identified one of the attackers who did not wear a mask as a militiaman called Manuel. Matan Ruak said his own force was not equipped with SKS and G3 rifles, which were believed used in the attack.

"We used to have them during the resistance but they were all handed over. Only militias have them," he said of the rifles.

Matan Ruak, President Xanana Gusmao and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri visited the villages on Sunday to meet residents and heard pleas for protection.

Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta has said that former pro- Jakarta militiamen were involved in riots which hit the capital Dili on Dec. 4, although he did not suggest they were acting on Jakarta's orders.

Two people were killed and 25 injured in those riots which began as a student protest against police. About a dozen buildings, including the prime minister's home, were destroyed or badly damaged.

East Timor became independent on May 20 after 24 years of Indonesian occupation and 31 months of United Nations stewardship.