Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - More deaths are reported in Timor turmoil

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Saturday, September 9, 2000

More deaths are reported in Timor turmoil
U.N. officials fear militants may have killed 20 more people in a West Timor village
By Irwan Firdaus
Associated Press
ATAMBUA, Indonesia - Hundreds of gun-toting militiamen staged a show of force Friday in a West Timor village where U.N. officials fear the militants killed 20 people despite Indonesia's promises to impose control in the territory.
   Reports of new slayings came as Indonesia's embattled president tried to reassure world leaders at the United Nations about the situation in West Timor, where U.N. workers said militiamen were terrorizing the populace and refugees.
   U.N. officials in East Timor said there were reports that militiamen went on a rampage in Betun village on Thursday that left 20 people dead.
   The reports of 20 dead could not be confirmed independently. All U.N. workers fled West Timor after a militia-led mob stormed U.N. offices in Atambua, 30 miles north of Betun, on Wednesday, slaughtering three foreign relief workers and three other people.
   Indonesian army officers said only that 11 people had died in a clash between militiamen and villagers near Betun, 18 miles from the border between West Timor and U.N.-administered East Timor.
   In New York, President Abdurrahman Wahid said his government had sent a battalion of troops to West Timor and that he had asked the United Nations for funds to relocate militamen from the province to other parts of Indonesia.
   The militias are the same gangs that, with backing from elements in the Indonesian military, wreaked destruction in East Timor after residents there voted for independence in an August 1999 referendum. Militiamen were pushed into the western part of Timor island when U.N. peacekeepers took control in the east.
   On Friday, about 1,000 militiamen, some dressed in Indonesian military uniforms and brandishing guns and machetes, gathered in Betun for the funeral of one of their commanders killed earlier in the week.
   Militia chiefs at the gathering demanded East Timorese leaders allow the militiamen to return to East Timor or face all-out war.
   On roads throughout the region, militiamen set up blockades, extorting money and cigarettes from passing motorists and searching cars for any remaining foreigners.

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

[an error occurred while processing this directive]