East Timor: Investigation Opened into Militia Killings of UN Employees 15 Jun-11:43

The bodies of two East Timorese United Nations employees killed by anti-independence militias last year have been exhumed for examination by forensic specialists in Dili, an UNTAET official announced Thursday. The spokeswoman said the exhumations, which took place last weekend near the village of Gleno, represented the first step into investigations of at least nine local UN employees who were killed during the self-determination referendum last Aug. 30. The initiative coincided with Amnesty International's annual global report, released Wednesday, which denounced Indonesia's "grave and systematic violations of human rights in East Timor" as "crimes against humanity and crimes of war." AI urged the continuation of investigations "to bring the criminals to justice before an international tribunal." Not only had Indonesia failed to provide security for the referendum, as agreed with the United Nations and Portugal, but its armed forces and police had furnished "arms and training" to irregulars who carried out summary executions, torture and mass deportations, the AI report said.

SAS -Lusa-

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