Suspects in U.N. Timor killings to be tried in November

JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) -- Six Indonesians suspected over the murder of three foreign U.N. aid workers in West Timor last month will face trial before November 15, possibly in Jakarta, the official Antara news agency said on Sunday.

Regional police chief Brigadier-General I Made Mangku Pastika was quoted as recommending the trials be held in the capital because of security fears, contradicting Jakarta officials who claim unrest in West Timor has been brought under control.

The murders and sacking of the West Timor office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) by pro-Jakarta militias on September 6 sparked widespread condemnation of Indonesia and threats to withhold aid.

INTERACTIVE MAP Fragile Archipelago -- a look at conflict areas in Indonesia and environs     MESSAGE BOARD Strife in Indonesia

U.N. mission to visit during trial

The trial openings will coincide with a visit to Indonesia by a U.N. Security Council mission from November 9-18 in the wake of the killings at the West Timor border town of Atambua.

Indonesia rejected an earlier request for a Security Council team to visit soon after the murders, saying this would ignite nationalistic passions over perceived foreign interference.

The U.N. delegation will visit West Timor and also East Timor, which the militias ravaged when the territory voted last year to break from Jakarta's harsh 23-year rule.

"We will ask the Attorney-General's Atambua office to arrange to hold the trials in Jakarta because of the security situation," Pastika told visiting Chief Politics Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the West Timor capital Kupang on Sunday.

Pastika said police were trying to find an additional three suspects over the violence who were in hiding.

Under Indonesian law, the six will be formally charged on their first day in court. They are being detained in West Timor.

Jakarta has been under pressure to try those responsible for the Atambua killings, in which the three aid workers were stabbed to death and their bodies dragged into a street and burnt.

The United States and the World Bank had warned that failure to disarm the violent militias could jeopardise vital aid flows, although donors at an annual meeting in Tokyo this month relented and agreed to give fresh funds to the embattled country.

Indonesia insists it has made progress in disarming the militias, who operate from refugee camps holding 120,000 East Timorese along the West Timor border.

The U.N. says many of these refugees -- part of 300,000 who either fled last year's violence in East Timor or were herded across the border by the militias -- are virtually being held hostage by the gangs.

Guterres was arrested over the violence that led to the deaths of the three refugee workers, but has not been implicated in the actual killings

Militia boss to be freed soon

Separately, Jakarta police told Reuters that militia boss Eurico Guterres would be freed soon from house detention after a court on October 23 ruled his arrest was unlawful.

Guterres was arrested over the violence that led to the deaths of the three refugee workers, but has not been implicated in the actual killings. Prior to being placed under house arrest, Guterres had been held at police headquarters.

Police have said they would appeal the court verdict.

Guterres is also being investigated in separate probes over violence in East Timor last year.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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