Pro-Indonesia Militia Leader Jeered In East Timor Capital

DILI, East Timor (AP)--A crowd of onlookers on Friday jeered and chased a bus carrying the first pro-Indonesian militia leader to return to East Timor since violence shattered the territory nearly six months ago.

Under a heavy military escort, Jaunico Belo, who commanded militias in eastern East Timor, toured parts of the territory's capital Dili on Friday as a guest of the United Nations.

U.N. officials said Belo arrived in East Timor on Thursday for what they labeled as a "come and see visit."

"We brought him here from West Timor so he could see what's going on," U.N. public information officer Barbara Reis said. "He will go back on Sunday and we hope he will tell others about the conditions here and speed up the repatriation of the refugees."

About 130,000 East Timorese are still sheltering in squalid camps in Indonesian West Timor and U.N. officials say many are not returning home due to fears of a lack of security and food.

On Thursday, Belo met with U.N. administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello and East Timorese independence leader Jose "Xanana" Gusmao.

Even though he has been implicated in the murder and destruction that gripped East Timor last year following the announcement of the overwhelming vote for independence in a U.N.-sponsored ballot, U.N. officials have said they will not arrest him during this visit.

"We have guaranteed his safety now," Reis said. "But he has no general amnesty."

Separately, forensic experts in the town of Los Palos in eastern East Timor began exhuming Friday the bodies of eight victims of a militia massacre last year.

Two nuns, three seminarians, an Indonesian journalist and two others were believed to have been killed by militia thugs on Sept. 22, two days after a multinational peacekeeping force landed in the territory to restore security.