Craig Skehan, Jakarta – East Timorese independence supporters say they are being terrorised in Jakarta and elsewhere by militiamen with shadowy political connections.

Sources said that one man who had been actively involved in searches for independence activists was closely connected to Prabowo Subianto, the disgraced son-in-law of former president Soeharto. The man, who is blind in one eye, is reputed to have criminal connections.

Prabowo is a former head of the Indonesian Kopassus special force, which has been involved in training anti-independence militias in East Timor. In May last year, Prabowo was sacked after soldiers under his command were accused of kidnapping and torturing political dissidents.

Opposition groups say they suspect that Prabowo loyalists are linked to a growing number of disappearances of East Timorese independence activists who were forced to flee from their strife-torn homeland.

"There is no doubt that people have disappeared, not just here in Jakarta but in other places as well, including Bali," one activist told the Herald. "It is just a matter of how many have gone into hiding and how many have been kidnapped or killed."

An East Timorese human rights activist whose home in Dili was destroyed in a militia attack was able to escape to Jakarta. "I am with a group and we move houses every couple of days," he said. "There are a lot of people like us."

One East Timorese leader said the bodies of four East Timorese independence supporters, all men, had been found in Tanggeran township west of Jakarta. He said there had been reports that the same area was being used by Indonesian commandos to train militias for future use in a guerilla campaign in East Timor aimed at disrupting attempts to build an independent state.

East Timorese leaders estimated more than a thousand East Timorese may have fled to Jakarta. "It is not easy to get here if people are known to have worked for the independence cause," one source said. "People have to hide on the way. Now, even here in Jakarta, they are not safe."

Although now living overseas, Prabowo maintains a network of supporters within the armed forces.