Five army recruits arrested over last week's attack on police

Subject: LUSA: Five army recruits arrested over last week's attack on police

13-11-2002 18:15:00. Notícia nº 4335110…

East Timor: Five army recruits arrested over last week's attack on police

Dili, Nov 13 (Lusa) - Five army recruits were arrested in East Timor Wednesday on suspicion of involvement in last week's attack on traffic policemen in Dili, which left two police officers hospitalized.

The detentions of the defense force recruits, who will appear in court Thursday, comes a day after two other trainee soldiers were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in last Friday's incident - believed to be a revenge attack.

Dili's police chief, Antonio Silva, told Lusa "investigations are still continuing and we have more information that we are still checking".

Investigations were being jointly conducted by military and police officials, said Silva, who described progress in the case as "positive".

Police and eyewitness accounts of last week's violent scenes around Dili's main market suggest a group of uniformed recruits, using knives or bayonets, attacked traffic police who had ordered a motorcycle to stop.

The attack is believed to have been motivated by "revenge" for the earlier arrest of two defense force members for public order offences.

ASP/CJB -Lusa-

Posted by Eliot Hoffman, East Timor Action Network/US, www.etan.org

Back to November Menu
October
Main Postings Menu

Note: For those who would like to fax "the powers that be" - CallCenter is a Native 32-bit Voice Telephony software application integrated with fax and data communications... and it's free of charge! Download from http://www.v3inc.com/