UN reports discovery of bodies in E. Timor

UN reports discovery of bodies in E. Timor

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters): A mass grave site was discovered in East Timor, possibly containing more than 50 people, while divers found the remains of more bodies at the bottom of a lake, the United Nations reported on Monday.

UN military observers confirmed 18 burial places in the enclave of Oecussi-Ambeno, which is surrounded by Indonesian West Timor territory. Some of the graves contained more than one body, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

He said villagers reported the graves contained the bodies of more than 50 people who had been fleeing pro-Jakarta gangs or militia "when they were captured by the militia and shot on Sept. 10." Others put the numbers at more than 65 dead.

A spokesman for the Australian Defense Ministry, whose troops dominate an international force in East Timor, reported from the East Timor capital, Dili, that 14 bodies had been uncovered to date.

Pro-Jakarta militia conducted a scorched-earth policy of killing, looting and burning to protest an Aug. 30 ballot in which East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia. Peacekeepers have so far found some 200 bodies.

Separately, Eckhard said Australian divers, acting on a tip from local people, found human remains at the bottom of a lake in the Liquica district, once a stronghold of the militia.

He gave no estimate of how many corpses were discovered but Australian sources reported about a dozen bodies dumped in a lake at Maubura. They may have been killed last April when at least 25 parishioners were hacked to death by the militia at Liquica's Roman Catholic Church.

The killings in the enclave of Oecussi, also known as Ambeno, were reported in October by East Timor's independence leader, Xanana Gusmao, who said as many as 65 people were allegedly murdered in attacks by the militia and the Indonesian army.