Journalists forcibly stopped amidst reports of new East Timor killings

**Updates IFEX alerts of 10 May, 21 April, 20 April and 29 March 1999**

The "Sydney Morning Herald" quoted the local Foundation for Legal and Human
Rights (Yayasan-Hak) as saying that in a village called Atara: "Information
we received this morning indicates 12 corpses identified. These are people
killed in the village - shot dead. There are more than 20 other people
killed in a coffee plantation, but nobody has the courage to go in there
because the militia is still waiting." Radio Australia quoted witnesses as
saying the militia were backed by local Indonesian forces and intelligence
operatives.

AAP said the area to the north of the village has been at the centre of a
large operation by the Indonesian military against pro-independence
guerrillas. It quoted Roman Catholic Church sources as reporting many bodies
found in the fields around another village after Indonesian forces, backed
by the militia, moved through the area.

Earlier, international journalists attempting to cover a renewed rampage by
pro-Indonesia militiamen in the East Timorese capital, Dili, were attacked
and threatened, the "Sydney Morning Herald" reported on 10 May.

Background Information

East Timorese are scheduled to begin voting on 8 August in a referendum on
possible independence from Indonesia, which in 1975 invaded the former
Portuguese colony of 800,000 people. Six international media workers were
killed during the invasion. Organisations such as the International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Australian colleagues have called for
investigations into continuing allegations they were deliberately killed by
Indonesian forces or forces under Indonesian control (see IFEX alerts).