Joanna Jolly, Dili – The United Nations is searching 29 grave sites in an area of the East Timorese enclave of Oecussi where witnesses say 75 people were massacred. Searchers so far have found 10 bodies in an operation that began on Monday and is expected to last a week.
Two Australian forensic experts have joined UN civilian police, the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) and locals in digging up the graves outside Passabe, a town near the border with Indonesian West Timor.
Oecussi saw some of the worst violence carried out by the Indonesian military and pro-Jakarta militias after the the UN-sponsored independence ballot on August 30.
Human rights groups said 80 percent of the population were forced to move from Oecussi to West Timor and have documented 90 confirmed killings in the enclave. The graves are believed to contain villagers from Oecussi who were killed by militiamen on September 9.
According to East Timorese human rights organisation Yayasan Hak, a witness to the massacre alleges 75 people were killed. The witness was among a group of East Timorese who crossed the border to West Timor as violence broke out.
The witness, the only survivor, said the group was called to an evening meeting by Josep Kaet, the head of Imbate village. When they arrived, Mr Kaet began to harass them for supporting independence.
About 150 members from the Sakunar militia arrived and separated the men from the women. The men were further separated into two groups and tied together. According to the witness, they were forced to march 5km into Oecussi as the militia searched for more men as they passed through villages. One man tried to escape and was stabbed in the stomach.
At midnight, the group stopped at a small village and the order was given to begin the massacre. The witness was slashed with a machete in his side, neck and head, but was protected from further attack when another victim fell on top of him.
He said militiamen used machetes and bayonets to kill 75 men, coming back twice to make sure everyone was dead. He fell unconscious from his injuries, but woke up later that night and escaped.
Yayasan Hak official Hilmar Farid said: "This account proves that people weren't killed in fighting, but tied up and systematically massacred. "Now we need a more serious effort to investigate cases, to identify victims and to listen to their stories."