NZ soldiers to help hunt for war criminals

By Greg Ansley

DARWIN - New Zealand troops will be involved in the hunt for war criminals in East Timor.

As Indonesian troops withdraw from the ravaged island, East Timorese have started to identify their former militia tormentors and there have been several arrests.

Lieutenant-Colonel Martyn Dunn, the commander of the New Zealand contingent, which will move in force into Dili within the next few days, said lawyers attached to the Interfet peacemaking headquarters were already preparing their investigations.

"It is going to be a matter of someone will have to be held accountable for essentially what is murder," he said, after flying from Dili to Darwin yesterday.

Colonel Dunn said the Interfet commander, Major-General Peter Cosgrove, intended to pursue the issue of war crimes, and several militiamen suspected of atrocities had been detained.

"What the commander has done is endeavour to push this war crimes thing," he said.

He said such crimes would be prosecuted under United Nations conventions "if it can be proven that people have been committing them."

On Friday, peacemaking troops arrested Caitano da Silva, commander of the Dili-based Aitarak militia, as evidence of mass murder mounted in Dili.

Eight bodies have been found in a well in the city, and Colonel Dunn said that bodies were being found all the time.

"The locals are coming forward and telling us."

There was a standoff between Interfet and the Indonesian Army after officials tried to recover the bodies of suspected militia victims.

But Colonel Dunn said the number of people the militias had murdered was not significant and there was no comparison with the slaughter in Kosovo.

"But there have certainly been some appalling incidents."

Colonel Dunn said there was no evidence to back reports that boatloads of East Timorese had been taken out to sea and dumped.

As peacemakers extend their control to the highway to the eastern city of Bacau and in the areas around Dili, the extent of the militia's rampage is becoming clearer. Colonel Dunn said that most larger towns were destroyed by up to 80 per cent, although some of the villages around them had escaped the worst.

He said that Dili would have to be rebuilt. "What needs to happen with Dili is they need to move everybody out, line up about 50 bulldozers from the western side, and go through."

Peacemakers cordoned off Dili at the weekend, but a sweep of the city failed to find any militia weapons. Colonel Dunn said, however, the situation remained tense and dangerous and rogue elements of the Indonesian Army were still causing trouble.

On Saturday peacemakers prevented Indonesian Army soldiers from torching a hotel and school after pouring petrol through the buildings.

At the weekend Army troops burned down their barracks and homes as they pulled out, causing both problems and opportunities for peacemakers.

Colonel Dunn said that the departure of the Army could remove the final restraints on the militia, but might also allow Interfet troops to better identify militiamen who were unidentifiable "unless someone dobs them in."