Joanna Jolly, Dili – In a legal first for East Timor, United Nations prosecutors yesterday filed multiple rape charges against an Indonesian army officer and two militia leaders. The men allegedly committed the attacks during a wave of violence before and after the 1999 independence referendum.

"This is the first time we have filed indictments for sexual crimes," said the UN chief prosecutor, Mr Mohamed Othman, after the indictments were filed at the Dili District Court.

Those accused are 2nd Lieutenant Bambang Indra and militia fighters Jose Cardoso Fereira and Francisco Noronha. The three allegedly detained and repeatedly raped three women between May and July 1999 in the town of Lolatoi, 100 kilometres south-west of Dili.

Prosecutors say the suspects later took the women to Indonesian-controlled West Timor, where they were forcibly injected with contraceptives.

The three, plus two other militia members, Jhoni France and Sabino Leite, were also charged with other crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and kidnapping.

The five are accused of beating and killing independence supporters. In one incident, the suspects cut off the ear of a victim and forced him to eat it, the prosecutors allege.

Indra and Noronha are believed to be at large in Indonesia. The three others are in custody in Dili. "Arrest warrants for the suspects still at large will be issued shortly," said Mr Oyvind Olsen, head of the UN serious crimes unit in East Timor.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed by Indonesia and the UN administration in East Timor, suspects can be transferred between the two jurisdictions to face charges. This has not happened yet.