SERIOUS CRIMES UNIT INFORMATION RELEASE
6 December 2004
FOUR NEW INDICTMENTS FILED BY SCU

Sako Loro Monu Militia Platoon Commander and 4 Mahidi Militia Indicted

On 3 and 6 December 2004 the Serious Crimes Unit filed four new indictments charging four former members of the Mahidi militia and one former Sako Loro Monu militia with the murders of 19 persons. The indictments allege that all of the murders and other charges constituted crimes against humanity because they were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack on the population of East Timor in 1999. All the accused are at large and currently believed to be outside of Timor Leste.

The indictment against Frans Tallo alleges that in 1999 he was a platoon commander in the Sako Loro Monu (SLM) militia, which operated in and around the coastal village of Batugade, Bobonaro district. The primary role of the SLM militia was to torture and murder independence supporters captured by other militia groups and members of the TNI in Bobonaro district.

The indictment alleges that Frans Tallo tortured and murdered independence activist Longuinos Pereira on 16th April 1999; that he murdered independence activist Bonifacio Barreto on or around 13th May 1999; that he
murdered eight independence activists, Francisco Maia, Carlos De Carvalho, Benjamin Lucas, Alexio Paicheco, Patricio Santos Marcal, Cornelius Galojo, Gabriel Dos Santos and Francisco Paicheco, on 6 September 1999; and that he murdered Sabino Pereira sometime in September 1999. All of the above mentioned murders are believed to have taken place at Batugade beach. After the victims had been killed, the SLM militia used local fishing boats to dispose of the bodies in the sea.

In the second indictment, Tomas Lopes Maia Udin, former Deputy Company Commander of the Mahidi militia, is charged with the murder of one person and attempted murder of another on 12 September 1999 in Kamenasa village, Suai. The third indictment accuses Alfredo Breok, a platoon commander of the Mahidi militia in Zumalai, of the murder of two persons.In the fourth indictment, Domingos Mau Buti and Adriano Nascimento are
accused of rape, the murder of 5 persons, and the attempted murder of another. All of these crimes are alleged to have been committed in Mape village, Zumalai in June 1999. One of the murder victims was a six year-old girl who was being transported by militia along with her parents. When she began to cry, she was stabbed and thrown from the vehicle into an irrigation ditch.

To date, the Serious Crimes Unit has filed 90 indictments charging 377 individuals with some accused charged in multiple indictments. Cases have been completed through trial for 74 accused persons, with 72 convicted of
one or more charges.

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