Jakarta – An Indonesian rights body said Monday it had found evidence of organized human rights abuses by pro-Jakarta militia in West Timor, and urged Jakarta to protect the remaining 230,000 refugees East Timorese there.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said at a press conference here that approximately 21 militia groups in Indonesian-held West Timor had committed "systematic and organized human rights violations."

"Forced disappearances, arbitrary detention and violence against women have occured there. The freedom with which they can operate has created a deep and widespread fear among the refugees.

"Neglecting the militia operation shows a significant relationship between [Indonesia's] security forces and the militia," Komnas HAM said.

That relationship had "hampered the work of the commission team of inquiry and that of international human rights groups," said Albert Hasibuan, head of the inquiry team. Hasibuan said the vicious Aitarak (Thorn) and Red and White Iron groups had been intimidating refugees in several camps in Kupang, the capital of West Timor.

Therefore, the government had to increase "security guarantees" for the refugees to return to East Timor and to put "an immediate stop to" and "disband the militia groups," said Hasibuan.

"Testimonies from witnesses revealed that militia have arrested, threatened and terrorized the refugees ... one militiamen supervises 10 to 15 people. The militia often threatened the refugees if they said they wanted to repatriate.

"Other witnesses have also reported that militiamen have kidnapped East Timorese girls from the camps – and the lack of security have made these girls susceptible to sexual violence," Hasibuan added.

The United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) has been assisting refugees to return by land, sea and air to East Timor from West Timor, where more than a quarter of a million East Timorese were pushed or fled during the wave of militia violence that greeted the August 30 independence vote.

A total of 16,938 refugees had returned to East Timor under UNHCR auspices as of last Monday, 10,867 by air and 5,955 by boat. An estimated 4,000 other people had returned unaccompanied on foot, and additional 116 crossed the border last Friday in trucks and on foot.

The UNHCR and other relief groups, as well as journalists, have reported terrified refugees telling them of disappearances, especially of young East Timorese men from the camps.

There have also been unconfirmed reports of killings by the militias of those wanting to return. The refugees have said they feared the young men were being drafted into guerrilla style militia armies to fight United Nations troops in East Timor, with the threat that their families in the camps will be killed if they don't.