/** reg.easttimor: 2665.0 **/

** Topic: Timorese resistance says Indon plans "ethnic cleansing" **
** Written 12:03 PM Sep 5, 1999 by Joyo@aol.com in cdp:reg.easttimor **
Subject: Timorese resistance says Indon plans "ethnic cleansing"

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Timorese resistance says Indonesia plans "ethnic cleansing": report

LISBON, Sept 5 (AFP) - Timorese resistance leaders living abroad warned Sunday that Indonesia was preparing an "ethnic cleansing" of East Timor after a landslide vote for indpendence, state news agency Lusa reported.

The National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) said in a statement issued in Australia that it had evidence Indonesia was massing between 30,000 to 40,000 troops along the border of East Timor, in preparation for an "invasion," Lusa said.

"Thirty-six hours after the Timorese celebrated the victory of independence, Indonesia is preparing a plan of genocide and social disintegration to literally kill the independence movement," Lusa quoted the the statement as saying.

Thousands of people have fled to the mountains, it said, charging that "police are firing indiscriminately and pursuing refugees in towns nearest the mountains."

In South Africa, Mari Alkatiri, a leader of the Fretilin armed resistance movement, was quoted Sunday by Lusa as saying that Indonesia sought to "destroy the social fabric of East Timor (...) by evacuating the East Timorese toward Indonesian territory."

Alkatiri, who lives in Maputo, Mozambique, has not been to East Timor for 24 years.

He was due in Jakarta for the release Wednesday of resistance leader Xanana Gusmao.

** End of text from cdp:reg.easttimor **