Dili – Two men were killed and five wounded in East Timor when supporters of a referendum on the future of the troubled territory clashed with an armed militia backing autonomy, a source said Monday.

Militia members at a security post in Ainaro district fired into a mob of about 100 people late on Sunday after warning shots were ignored, the source here said.

The head of the East Timor military information service, Captain Agus Nukasa, said autonomy supporters had complained of harassment and terror by those who backed a referendum for the former Portuguese colony which Indonesia annexed in 1976.

They said several houses in the area had been burned, forcing them to establish an armed civilian militia set up with the help of the military, Nukasa said. The militia established five security posts which apparently irritated the referendum lobby, he added. Security authorities were still investigating the violence.

[On January 5, the Lusa news agency reported that lack of medical assistance in a hospital in Dili could endanger the lives of the victims. The CNRT coordinator in East Timor, Leandro Isaac, also told Lusa that "hundreds" of civilians had recently fled to Dili because they feared attacks by the pro-Indonesian militia movement, Sukarelawan, which is operating in the Ainaro area - James Balowski.]