Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Eurico Guterres, the swaggering militia leader blamed for atrocities in East and West Timor who continues to thumb his nose at authorities, has threatened to mobilise his followers against Indonesia's regional police post.

Guterres led a militia rampage through police headquarters in the West Timor town of Atambua on Sunday, claiming insult at his exclusion from a visit there by Indonesia's Vice-President, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Two senior United Nations staff attending a ceremony to mark the handover of militia weapons were bundled into a room under police protection and later said they feared for their lives.

"I give a one-week deadline [for the police chief] to explain why I had been taken to the intelligence room so that I couldn't meet Megawati," Guterres, 29, was quoted as saying yesterday by the official Antara news agency.

If his demand were ignored he would mobilise his followers to occupy the police station in Kupang, West Timor's capital. "The security authorities think I have no access to Megawati," Guterres said. "The truth is even now I can get hold of her by mobile phone."

Of all the crimes against humanity committed in East Timor last year, Guterres's were the most public. On April 17 senior Indonesian police and military officers in Dili and foreign journalists were among dozens of people who saw Guterres whipping his militia thugs into a frenzy outside the then offices of the East Timor governor on Dili's waterfront.

Cameras recorded Guterres exhorting his men to declare war on the pro-independence Carrascalao family. "Capture and kill them all if necessary," Guterres urged his men, who had been trucked in armed with home-made rifles, machetes and iron bars. Within an hour about 100 of Guterres's militia had stormed the house of Mr Manuel Carrascalao and killed 12 people.

The attack is one of five in East Timor last year that are the focus of an investigation by Indonesia's Attorney-General, but Guterres is not on the list of 19 people named last month as suspects.

The former Dili gang leader is an important person in Indonesia. Too important, it seems, to face prosecution. Guterres is a youth wing leader of Ms Megawati's political party, and has been seen leading at least one party rally in Jakarta.

When three senior Indonesian ministers flew to Bali this month to offer an island to resettle refugees living in camps in West Timor, Guterres was among 17 militia leaders invited to attend – on a day he was supposed to face questioning by prosecutors in Jakarta. He claimed he never received a summons.

Guterres lives in Kupang, where he is always flanked by bodyguards and is driven around in a four-wheel drive with tinted windows. He appears to have plenty of money to fly around Indonesia, often staying at a three-star hotel in Jakarta, but does not have a job. Guterres says disarming the militias is a waste of time because "unless all the stores are closed don't blame us if home-made weapons show up".