Soldiers discover 30 bodies dumped in well

AN INTERNATIONAL team of peace-keepers discovered a mass grave and a suspected torture chamber in Dili yesterday as the first solid evidence emerged of atrocities committed by pro-Indonesia militias in East Timor.

As many as 30 bodies are believed to lie in a well behind the home of Manuel Carrascalao, a prominent pro-independence activist. Mr Carrascalao's house was taken over by the Aitarak militia four months ago, after Eurico Guterres, the leader of the pro-Indonesian militia group, ordered his men to go to war with the Carrascalao family. The same day, 100 of his men stormed Mr Carrascalao's house, killing 12 people including his 18- year-old son.

Yesterday, Australian troops found dried blood and meat hooks in the garden near the well. Locals said they believed the torture victims had been suspended on the hooks and cut up before being dumped in the well. Clothes were scattered around the garden. A woman's battered body was on top of the stack of corpses in the well. Her head had been severed. The discovery came just hours after the killing on Tuesday night of the Dutch journalist, Sander Thoenes, by six Indonesian soldiers as he rode on the back of a motor bike through the town of Becora, a few kilometres from Dili. The Indonesian soldiers, travelling in the opposite direction on three motorbikes, opened fire with automatic rifles on Thoenes and Florindo da Conceiao Araujo, who was driving the bike. Florindo managed to escape.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Indonesian troops due to leave the territory soon were vandalising military and other buildings, amid strong indications that Indonesia's military commander in East Timor, Major-General Kiki Syahnakri, would not be able to stop revenge attacks by angry troops.

Major S Ahmed, of Indonesia's 521 battalion, said on the eve of his 1,000 troops withdrawing: "You just wait ... all hell will break loose."

Military sources said General Syahnakri will be ready to tell the head of the multinational force, Major-General Peter Cosgrove, within days that Indonesia is no longer responsible for security in East Timor. Under a UN-brokered agreement, Indonesian security forces were to secure the territory until the country's supreme legislature, due to meet in November, ratified the results of the independence ballot. After the visit of a high-level UN team to Jakarta, the timetable was revised.