DATE=10/04/00
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA / TIMOR ARREST (L)
NUMBER=2-267441
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Indonesian Police officials say they have arrested Timorese militia leader - Eurico Guterres. He is one of the top suspects in the investigation into the militia's destruction of East Timor after it voted for independence from Indonesia last year. Patricia Nunan has the details.
TEXT: Indonesia's national police chief, General Suroyo Bimantoro, says Eurico Guterres has been arrested on a weapons charge and is being held in Jakarta.
Indonesia has been trying to disarm the militias with little success so far.
The arrest comes just two days after investigators from Indonesia's attorney-general's office added Mr. Guterres' name to the list of 19 official suspects in the inquiry into the violent destruction of East Timor last year.
The pony-tailed leader of the notorious "Aitarak" or "Thorn" militia group, Mr. Guterres became one of East Timor's most outspoken opponents of independence from Indonesia.
When East Timor's independence movement won the United Nations-supervised ballot in August 1999, Aitarak and other anti-independence militia groups launched a two-week campaign of terror - killing hundreds of people and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee for the safety of refugee camps.
Investigators say they believe that Mr. Guterres may have been involved in at least one violent incident prior to the independence vote. They are looking into whether he was involved in an attack on the home of a well-known independence leader, Manuel Carrascalao, in April 1999 - in which 12 people, including Mr. Carrascalao's son, were killed.
More recently, supporters of Mr. Guterres are blamed for a deadly attack last month on UN aid workers in Atambua, West Timor.
Mr. Guterres volunteered to appear for questioning by investigators on Tuesday. However he warned that if he were arrested, his supporters -- which he estimates to number 130 thousand -- may try to take over a district of East Timor.
Indonesia has come under a barrage of criticism in recent weeks for its apparent reluctance to crackdown on anti-independence militia groups which operate out of the province of West Timor. (signed)
NEB/HK/PN/JO/PLM
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