Dili – A captured former anti-independence militiaman has told interrogators in Dili that at least seven armed groups infiltrated East Timor from Indonesia in December, according to two reports obtained by Lusa Tuesday.

The reports, one prepared by Timorese police and the second for the Timorese Defence Force, cite the captive as saying all the armed groups were organized in the West Timor border town of Atambua by an Indonesian army chief sergeant, Tomi Dogo, and a former Indonesian civil servant in Gleno, Miguel Guterres.

According to the captive, Armando Kamarudin, who once served with the Indonesia special military SKI force, the seven groups crossed the border through the informal market area of Talilaran with orders to head for seven East Timorese districts, including Dili and Baucau. The two reports made no mention of the missions or targets given the infiltrators.

But when Kamarudin and five other members of his seven-man band were captured by civilians near Liquica, about 36 kms west of Dili, Monday, they reportedly said their mission was to "destabilize" East Timor. Kamarudin, according to the police and Defense Force reports, gave deatiled information on four of the seven infiltrated groups, all apparently composed of Timorese and armed with a variety of automatic weapons and homemade arms.

Kamarudin was quoted as saying that his group crossed the border on December 18 through the Talilaran market between two Australian UN peacekeeping checkpoints. "The peacekeeping soldiers never inspect civilians, so when dressed as civilians one can infiltrate East Timor even in daylight, right under their eyes as if one were going for a walk", one report cited Kamarudin as saying.

Unidentified armed bands have been operating in areas southwest of Dili for weeks. In a January 2 raid on a village near Atsabe seven people were abducted and two days later six were killed and four wounded in raids on two other villages in the area, about 60 kms from Dili.