'President ordered East Timor mayhem'

East Timorese militia in the Indonesian province of West Timor say they are ready to hand over documents proving that last year's violence in East Timor was ordered by the former Indonesian president and his senior generals.

East Timorese militia in the Indonesian province of West Timor say they are ready to hand over documents proving that last year's violence in East Timor was ordered by the former Indonesian president and his senior generals.

The militia say they believe the Indonesian military is attempting to assassinate their members to prevent them from revealing the extent to which the Indonesian government controlled the violence that followed the independence referendum in August last year.

Documents released by the militia said the former president of Indonesia BJ Habibie and the chief of the armed-forces at the time, General Wiranto, had called a secret meeting of militia leaders before the referendum to outline Indonesia's strategy. The militia's vice-commander, Nemecio Lopez de Carvalho, said in the West Timorese capital of Kupang: "Habibie said to us: 'I give the order to all of you that if autonomy loses your job is to clean East Timor from the East to the West and leave nothing alive but ants.'"

He added: "[The Indonesia government] used us like killing machines. We were created by the TNI (Indonesian military) and police in order to kill each other. The machine did not gain its aims and they are blaming us. We believe they will try to destroy us."

The militia have written to the UN Security Council, saying they are willing to disarm; to talk to an international war crimes tribunal; to begin reconciliation talks with the East Timorese leadership; and to help secure the return of some 100,000 East Timorese refugees still in West Timor.