Atambua – Indonesian immigration officers in Mota'ain, a town on the Indonesia-East Timor border, on Friday turned away a group of UN lawyers who intended to visit Atambua because the latter lacked the necessary visa.

"We had to bar them from visiting Atambua, as they did not have visa on their passports," the head of the immigration office in Atambua, Drs Slamet Santoso, said.

The UN lawyers' team was on its way to Atambua where it had intended to collect testimonies from witnesses in a murder allegedly committed by Beny Ludji, a former member of the pro-integration paramilitary Aitarak group.

They wanted to obtain information from witnesses, especially ex-East Timoreses, who had gained Indonesian nationality.

Beny Ludji, who was accused of having murdered a child of a former village head in Dili, East Timor, in 1999, was arrested by UN peace-keeping soldiers in the Mota'ain-Batugade border region last April.

Slamet said his office had to apply immigration rules indiscriminately even if the border crossers happened to be UN officers.

"Whoever they are, we must ask them to complete their travel documents with visa. The Indonesian representative office in Dili will be able to help them obtain the visa," he said.

Because they were turned away by the Indonesian immgration office at Mota'ain, the UN lawyers failed to visit Atambua in their effort to gain more data from witnesses in the serious crime.

They were disappointed but reportdely decided to try to come to Atambua again on Monday next week.

In the meantime, Belu district police head Adjunct Senior Commissioner said his side supported the intention of the UN lawyers' team to visit Atambua.

UN lawyers had previously often visited Belu to obtain more information from witnesses that could help mitigate their client.

In fact, Nugroho had been waiting for the arrival of the UN lawyers' team since Friday (Jan 16) at 7am local time. "I didn't know that they were denied entry by immigration for lacking visit visa," Nugroho said.