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Security forces kill Timorese youth, says resistance sources

Source
Lusa - June 13, 1997

Sydney – Indonesian security forces killed on June 9 an East Timorese youth in the province of Viqueque, after accusing him of collaborating with the local resistance self-determination movement, a source has told Lusa.

The source said on Thursday that Vasco Pinto, 24, had been stabbed several times on the back and chest, adding that "the situation in the area is very tense as arrests and tortures continue". East Timor police chief Colonel Jusuf Maharam, quoted by Indonesian news agency Antara, said on Thursday that the police had arrested three more people over a fire that swept the largest market in the territory's capital Dili last week.

Indonesian authorities said they had captured 120 members of the guerrilla after several attacks during and in the aftermath of the Indonesian parliamentary elections on May 29.

The police said also that 34 people had died as a result of the attacks.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it one year later but the United Nations still regards Portugal as the territory's administering power.

Portugal has demanded that East Timor be given the right of self-determination.

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