The East Timorese leader, Xanana Gusmao, has announced a major operation to evacuate up to 3,000 East Timorese from Indonesia next week. He said that the refugees in Java, Bali and other parts of Indonesia were receiving threats and that it was no longer a safe place for them. Meanwhile the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, has called for an international inquiry into the massacre of thousands of civilians in East Timor.
Indonesia has said that it will end martial law in East Timor with immediate effect and will hand over security to the UN peacekeeping force as soon as possible. Indonesia's Justice Minister said that the decision was taken because the security situation in East Timor is improving. However, the UN forces in the province have reported a number of shooting incidents overnight. Several suspected members of the pro-Indonesian militias were arrested. The militia leader has said that his men are re-grouping and will continue their resistance.
The peacekeeping force says that it has found eight bodies in a well behind a home in the territory's capital, Dili. It is reported that local residents also led journalists to the well and showed them a nearby garden where they said pro-Indonesia militiamen had hung victims on meat hooks and slit their throats. The residents said the bodies were then dumped in the well. The Australian Defence Force spokesman, Colonel Duncan Lewis, said the matter had been reported to the Indonesian police.
Earlier it was reported that anti-independence militiamen had fired shots over the heads of peacekeepers in Dili. An Australian military spokesman said that there had been no casualties and that three suspected militia members had been detained. The gunfire happened outside the UN compound, where a number of journalists were sheltering. There were also reports of shots near the harbour area in the capital, where Indonesian soldiers are stationed, causing scores of people to flee in panic.
The commander of the British contingent of the multinational force has also accused Indonesian troops of firing shots near his soldiers. Brigadier David Richards denied that any of the international troops had fired shots. Major General Peter Cosgrove, the Commander of the UN force, has said they are closely monitoring reports of a build-up of pro-Jakarta militias in the neighbouring province of West Timor. He also told reporters that he was accelerating the deployment of his force, which already has about 3,000 troops on the ground.
