Subject: LUSA: Pro-Indonesia Militia Surrounds
Convent, Threatening to Kill Nuns
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 09:18:20 -0500
From: "Sharon R.A. Scharfe" <pet@web.net>16 MAR 99 - 13:15 East Timor:
Pro-Indonesia Militia Surrounds Convent, Threatening to Kill Nuns
Dili, March 16 (Lusa) - Pro-Indonesian militiamen have surrounded a Catholic convent
west of the East Timorese capital and threatened to kill any nun who leaves the premises,
a Catholic priest said Tuesday. Rev. Francisco Barreto, director of the Catholic relief
agency Caritas, said a paramilitary group called Besi Merah Putih, or Red and White Steel
in English, surrounded the Carmelite convent in Maubara, some 60 kms west of Dili, Monday
night and remained in place Tuesday. The militia threatened "to kill any nun leaving
the convent" because they were allegedly "working for the (nationalist)
resistance," Rev. Barreto said. He denied the charge, saying the nuns were providing
aid to anyone in need, "regardless of color, ideology or religion." -Lusa-
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