UN may quiz Timor suspect

Eurico Guterres - currently held in a Jakarta jail

Indonesia says it may allow the United Nations to question a pro-Jakarta militia leader in connection with a series of killings in East Timor last year.

Guterres will remain in Jakarta

Marzuki Darusman, Indonesian Attorney General

The Attorney General, Marzuki Darusman, said that any questioning of the militia leader, Eurico Guterres, would take place in Jakarta.

On Tuesday the UN authorities in East Timor issued a warrant requesting that Indonesia hand over Mr Guterres for questioning. But the Indonesian authorities have refused to extradite him.

"I have held a meeting with the president, the chief political, social and security affairs minister as well as the national police chief and the conclusion is that Guterres will remain in Jakarta," the attorney-general told reporters.

Pro-Jakarta militias during last year's referendum

The UN says that under a memorandum of understanding signed by the Indonesian president, Jakarta is bound to comply with the warrant.

It says other warrants will be issued in the coming weeks but it argues that this does not represent the start of an international war crimes tribunal on East Timor.

The UN and some foreign governments have warned that such a tribunal could be established if the Indonesian Government fails to bring those responsible for the violence to justice.

Campaign of terror

Mr Guterres is blamed by many for orchestrating a campaign of terror surrounding the East Timor's historic referendum on independence from Indonesia.

The UN warrant implicates the militia leader as a suspect in two separate attacks that took place before last year's poll.

In the first, pro-Jakarta militiamen hacked to death about 150 unarmed men, women and children taking refuge in a church in the town of Liquica.

The second attack, which occurred just days later, saw militiamen killing more than a dozen people at the home of independence activist Manuel Carrascalao in the East Timorese capital, Dili. Among those killed was Mr Carrascalao's son.

Last year's violence left hundreds of East Timorese dead and thousands of homes and businesses destroyed.

Many thousands of East Timorese remain trapped in Indonesian-controlled West Timor where aid agencies say they are subject to continuing intimidation and violence from the militias.

The UN is currently running East Timor, including its courts, as it prepares the territory for elections scheduled for next year and full independence.