Mark Dodd, Tumin – On a barren ridge just outside the village of Tumin, hundreds gathered last weekend to commemorate one of the most shocking mass murders that occurred in the violence following East Timor's 1999 referendum.

Some had walked all day to be present at the ceremony. They had heard a special guest would arrive to bear witness to their anguish and hear their appeals for justice.

But Xanana Gusmao, East Timor's famous independence leader, never arrived and those present began to wonder if even their leaders were starting to forsake the people of the enclave. "We are very, very sad about this because he promised us he was going to come and he didn't," said Mateus Remedio, a local teacher. Mr Gusmao had a good excuse; he was suffering from the flu. However, rumours abounded that his was a diplomatic illness.

Those who lost family in the killings and deportations that followed the vote to end Indonesian rule were also puzzled by Mr Gusmao's readiness to offer amnesty to militia leaders, some of whom took part in war crimes like the Turin massacre.

After the referendum on August 30, 1999, many people in the Oecussi enclave, anticipating violence, fled to the mountains. Nine days later two militia groups converged on the mountain villages of Passabe, Kiobiselo, Tumin and Nonkikan. Their intention was to eradicate suspected independence supporters.

The villages of Tumin and Kiobiselo were the main targets for one 500-strong militia group reinforced by police and soldiers from territorial Battalion 745. Indonesian soldiers were seen co-ordinating the attack using hand-held radios. Seventeen villagers were murdered in the initial strikes, with the rest rounded up and driven across the border to West Timor.

The next evening about 70 men were separated from the others, bound and then marched back into East Timor. The militia stopped the group in a field outside the village of Passabe and murdered them, using guns, machetes and swords.

"They took us all and tied our hands. I remember someone coming from behind and striking me – his name was Liberato Maung, a Sakunar militia," said Marcus Baquin, one of seven survivors. His cheekbone bears an ugly indent from a machete blow.

"I just want justice. I'm a witness, I know about this matter. My friends are dead. Put these militia in jail ... We [survivors] need someone to support us," he said.

During the remembrance ceremony hymns were sung and flowers laid on the graves of victims.

About 75 people are thought to have been murdered on September 9, 1999. The United Nations is planning exhumations of suspected graves. But frustration about the slow pace of justice is turning to anger and resentment among the villagers of Tumin. Some have complained of being interviewed as many as seven times by different police investigators rotating through the mission on six-month contracts. "The community is withdrawing their support from the police because they are so frustrated," a local human rights officer said.

At a gathering in Tumin on Sunday, the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor tried to reassure villagers justice was being done. "It is impossible to have justice unless you help us," said the UN's deputy-general prosecutor in East timor, Jean-Louis Gilissen. "Without your help we are nothing." He added that arrest warrants involving war crimes charges would be handed down by early next month. At the end of his speech the villagers clapped politely.