East Timor: Three ex-militiamen slain in border clash with police

Dili, Jan. 6 (Lusa) - Three former pro-Jakarta militiaman who were attempting to enter East Timor were shot dead Friday after a firefight with police, Indonesian media reported.

Seven armed ex-militiamen who were attempting to infiltrate Timor in the district of Bobonaro, about 50 kms southwest of Dili, were intercepted by a police patrol, the online Jakarta Post cited a senior Timorese security officer as saying.

Three of the group were shot dead in an ensuing gun battle with Timorese security forces and the rest of the militiamen who fled south to the district of Maliana, a police commander said, adding that the remaining militiamen were being hunted.

The Jakarta Post reported that one of the slain militiamen was José Mausorte, who allegedly entered Timor on several occasions to visit his family.

Anti-independence militia gangs, with backing from the Indonesian military, wreaked havoc and carnage before and after Timor's historic vote in 1999 to break free from Jakarta`s iron- fisted rule.

About 1,400 Timorese died in the orgy of violence and destruction that accompanied the independence referendum and Jakarta`s consequent scorched-earth withdrawal from the territory it had occupied for a quarter century.