Subject: SMH: Forensic tests start on Oecussi bodies

Sydney Morning Herald Thursday, April 20, 2000

Tests start on Oecussi bodies

Dili: United Nations forensic pathologists have begun autopsies on 20 sets of human remains uncovered in the Oecussi enclave last week, victims of one of the worst massacres allegedly committed by Indonesian security forces and pro-Jakarta militia last September.

Human rights investigators recovered the bodies from three villages near the border hamlet of Passabe, bringing to 65 the total number of bodies exhumed since February.

UN officials say more corpses are expected to be recovered.

"It is estimated at least 75 people died in the Passabe massacre in September last year," a spokeswoman for the UN administration in East Timor, Ms Barbara Reis, said. "The exhumations will continue until all the bodies are exhumed,"

She said the 20 sets of remains had been taken to the Dili morgue, where specialists would determine the age and sex of the victims.

Forensic tests so far have revealed most victims were men aged between 15 and 45. A third were aged under 22.

Jakarta yesterday named a 64-member team to investigate human rights violations in East Timor during the last days of Indonesian rule. The team, installed by the Attorney-General, includes 38 prosecutors and 16 police.

Mark Dodd


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