I thought this fit in with the thread, However they did find that damage to the infrastructure to be even worse than thought. . . October 13, 1999 Filed at 1:24 a.m. EDT
U.N. Sees No Evidence Of Mass Murder In East Timor
By Reuters
DILI, East Timor (Reuters) - The United Nations said Wednesday it had uncovered no evidence to support allegations that pro-Jakarta militia engaged in mass murder in East Timor.
``We've heard horrendous stories for which so far there's not a shred of evidence,'' Michel Barton, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) in Dili told Reuters.
``There's no evidence so far of very large massacres. There have been murders. There have been terrible things that have happened here.
``But we don't believe that people in their thousands have been killed and their bodies buried or thrown in the sea. If this had been the case we would have found evidence of this by now and none has been found.''
Miltia groups rampaged through East Timor last month, destroying virtually every city, town and hamlet after the population voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence in a U.N.-supervised referendum.
About 400,000 of East Timor's 890,000 people remain unaccounted for. Aid officials say some are dead but the vast majority remain in hiding in the hills, awaiting assurances that it's safe to return to their homes.
A U.N.-mandated international military force, known as INTERFET, continued its deployment among the western regencies of East Timor Wednesday with an air mobile operation in the Bobinaru region.
INTERFET troops have been pouring into those areas along the border with West Timor for the past week, hoping to stamp out the last militia activity and secure the region for badly needed humanitarian assistance.
The United States began resupplying INTERFET troops in the east around Los Palos Wednesday using CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters based on the USS Belleau Wood, which is anchored in waters just off the capital, Dili.
Washington has limited U.S. involvement here primarily to logistics, communications and intelligence support.
The U.N. force and Indonesian military officials are still sorting through conflicting versions of a shoot-out involving their forces in the hamlet of Motaain straddling the border between East and West Timor last Sunday.
An INTERFET spokesman said Wednesday the multinational force commander, Australian Major General Peter Cosgrove, would respond favorably to any constructive suggestions by Indonesian armed forces commander General Wiranto on how to avoid future clashes along the border.
``Commander (of) INTERFET is open to any suggestions from General Wiranto,'' said Colonel Mark Kelly.
``He respects General Wiranto. He certainly respects solutions and options that he has presented. We will have to look at those closely.''
Kelly said media reports that the Indonesian army was disarming militia forces in West Timor, if true, also would be welcome.
David Horne wrote:
> At 10:57 AM 10/13/1999 -0400, you wrote:
> >[I'm not passing this along to exonerate the Serbs from the crimes
> >they did commit, only to show that a lot of the war crimes rhetoric
> >was either the product of overstimulation or propaganda.]
> >
> >New York Times - October 13, 1999
> >
> >No Bodies at Rumored Grave Site in Kosovo
> >By REUTERS
> >
> >RISTINA, Kosovo -- War crimes investigators have found nothing in a
> >Kosovo mine shaft where hundreds of bodies were rumored to be hidden,
> >the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has
> >said.
> >
> >"They found absolutely nothing," a tribunal spokeswoman, Kelly Moore,
> >said on Monday.
> >
> >Rumors that Serbian forces had hidden the bodies of up to 700 ethnic
> >Albanians in the Trebca lead and zinc mine, near the northern city of
> >Mitrovica, had been circulating for months. Tribunal experts had
> >brought in special excavation equipment to investigate the rumors,
> >which had been widely reported in the Kosovo media.
> >
> >The Hague-based tribunal has indicted President Slobodan Milosevic of
> >Yugoslavia and four other senior Yugoslav and Serbian officials on
> >war crimes charges stemming from the Serbian campaign of violence
> >against Kosovo Albanians earlier this year.
> >
> >Forensic scientists with the tribunal have investigated more than 150
> >mass grave sites across the Serbian province in the last few months
> >and have hundreds more suspected sites to examine.
>
> To which I respond with a resounding "so what?" There has been enough hard
> evidence of Serb atrocities obtained to date. We hardly need more. The
> important thing to remember is that the other enthic groups would do
> exactly the same kinds of things given the opportunity. It is not so much
> that the Serbs have been given a bad rap, but that the other sides have
> been let off too lightly.
>
> David H.
> >
> >