| Subject: Militia
grenade blast wounds seven in Timor border area
Militia grenade blast wounds seven in
Timor border area
DILI, East Timor, Dec 22 (AFP) - Seven
people were wounded after a suspected member of a pro-Indonesian militia
threw a hand grenade in the border area between East and West Timor, a
spokesman for the international peace force here said.
Colonel Mark Kelly said that the grenade
blast took place in Indonesian-controlled West Timor across the border
from the East Timorese border village of Nemo on Monday.
Kelly said people in a market got
involved in an argument. People there identified one of the persons
involved in the dispute as being a suspected members of the militia.
"As people started to chase this
individual further into West Timor, to facilitiate his escape, he threw a
grenade. The grenate exploded and wounded seven cilvilians" Kelly
said.
The wounded were brought back to East
Timor by other civilians, Kelly said.
He said that several UN military
observers witnessed the attack and so did "some TNI (Indonesian armed
forces) who came to the area as the dispute started to build."
Kelly said that the Indonesian soldiers
fired two shots into the air to disperse the crowd after the handgrenade
had been thrown.
After the victims had been brought across
the border, they received assistance from the international peacekeeping
troops.
Three of the victims were treated briefly
in Maliana before they were released the same day while four of the
victims were flown to Dili, the main town in East Timor, later the same
day.
Kelly could not give details about the
four victims but said that they only suffered from "minor
wounds."
The head of the multinational
peacekeeping forces, major General Peter Cosgrove has written to Indonesia
military commanders expressing concern at the security situation in the
border area.
Pro-Indonesia militias were the main
perpetrators of the killing and destruction which erupted in East Timor
after the territory's voted for independence was announced in September.
Most of their fighters have since moved
across the border into West Timor and the head of an umbrella organisation
grouping the various militias last week called on them to disband. Aid
workers however say they remain active.
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