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Indonesian army 'supervised' Timor killing frenzy

Source
Sydney Morning Herald - February 8, 2000

Mark Dodd, Dili – Victims in what could have been East Timor's worst massacre last year were registered by Indonesian officials before being hacked to death, according to UN officials.

The killings, in the Oecussi enclave which is almost surrounded by Indonesian territory, were supervised by Indonesian troops and police, officials said. The remains of up to 45 people killed in Oecussi on 8 September were exhumed at the weekend and taken to a morgue in Dili where they were blessed by a Catholic priest.

UN officials said those selected for execution were first registered by Indonesian officials before being marched, hands bound, a short distance to where they were hacked to death by machete-wielding members of a militia death squad.

The head of the UN human rights office in Dili, Ms Sidney Jones, said 36 bodies had been exhumed, along with nine sets of incomplete remains, from shallow graves on a sandy river bank marking the border with Indonesian West Timor. At least two other bodies were unable to be recovered because they lay in quicksand, while another eight are buried on the Indonesian side of the border.

Those killed were first forced into West Timor, were officials took their names. "There was some form of registration process. They were taken into a government building and forced to register their names," Ms Jones said.

Evidence indicated the victims were mostly men taken on 8 September from villages near Passabe identified by Indonesian authorities as pro-independence strongholds.

According to accounts from the pro-independence CNRT group, between 52 and 56 men were marched across the border into West Timor for registration. Their hands were then bound with palm twine and they were marched a short distance back into East Timor where they were killed, Ms Jones said.

"It is the worst massacre of the post-referendum violence that we know of. We don't know exactly how many died at Liquica and Suai [other alleged massacre sites]. This one, we know exactly," she said. Ms Jones said there were survivors of the massacre but she refused to say how many. A number of victims were "very young" and the identity of the perpetrators was also known, she said.

UN officials said the executions were supervised by Indonesian soldiers and police. According to UN and East Timorese human rights officials, some 1000 men, women and children were murdered after the 30 August ballot on self-determination.

The remains of the Oecussi victims were blessed at Dili morgue in a ceremony designed to reassure the Timorese working there. "It's always difficult when you are dealing with death and we'll be dealing with death in large numbers," said Ms Jones.

"Show compassion for the East Timorese in this time of sorrow. We ask this, Oh Christ our Lord," said Father Edmundo Barreta, before he entered the darkened freezer holding the bodies. He sprinkled holy water on the bodies, each individually wrapped in blue plastic sheeting.

The commander of InterFET forces, Major-General Peter Cosgrove, said an arrest warrant had been issued against pro-Jakarta militia leader Laurantinio "Moko" Soares for the Oecussi killings. He said Indonesian officers yesterday assured InterFET they were eager to produce "Moko" Soares for a joint investigation.

General Cosgrove announced he would formally hand over military authority to UN peacekeepers on 23 February before leaving for Darwin.

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