Lisbon – Hundreds of detentions, "missing" and deaths continued to occur in Indonesia and East Timor in 1997, according to the annual report by Amnesty International (AI).

The human rights watchdog said on Wednesday that in relation to East Timor "tens of people were killed by security forces in suspect circumstances", while previous "missing" cases and extra-judicial executions are still be investigated.

It added that at least eighteen people were condemned to jail sentences despite their peaceful activities in support of the self-determination of the territory, and that seventeen youth had been condemned to one-year jail sentences for "expressing hate against the government" during a demonstration in Dili in last March.

AI denounced and criticised also "arbitrary and deliberate killings by the East Timor National Liberation Army - FALINTIL (territory's self-determination resistance movement)", but added that it could not confirm most of the information it had due to the restrictions imposed by Jakarta to human rights monitors seeking to visit the territory.