VZCZCXRO6177
PP RUEHCHI RUEHNH RUEHPB
DE RUEHDT #0018/01 0091518
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 091518Z JAN 06
FM AMEMBASSY DILI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2160
INFO RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0276
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA PRIORITY 0324
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON PRIORITY 0211
RUEHLI/AMEMBASSY LISBON PRIORITY 0251
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0136
RUEHDT/AMEMBASSY DILI 1472

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DILI 000018 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MTS 
JAKARTA FOR HANK RECTOR 
USUN FOR RICHARD MCCURRY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PBTS PHUM ASEC KAWC TT ID
SUBJECT: EX-MILITIA MEMBERS KILLED IN CLASH WITH EAST TIMOR BORDER 
POLICE 
 
REF: A) 2003 BANGKOK 2164, B) 2005 DILI 25, C) 2005 DILI 599 
 
DILI 00000018  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: Three alleged members of 1999-era 
anti-independence militias were shot dead by officers of East 
Timor's Border Patrol Unit (BPU) on Friday, January 6.   One of 
the three, Jose Mausorte, was a prominent member of the 
Halilintar militia and had been accused of involvement in 
several killings during 1999 and subsequently in violent 
cross-border incursions, including an incident in 2003 in which 
militia members killed two people.  At least one of the other 
two men killed also appears to have been a member of Halilintar. 
 According to East Timorese officials, five militia members had 
crossed the border illegally and were confronted by four BPU 
officers attempting to arrest them.  They then attacked the BPU 
and in the ensuing struggle a BPU officer shot and killed three, 
while two others escaped.  The version of the events conveyed by 
the Indonesian Embassy in Dili differs markedly, claiming that 
the five were only present in the border area to fish, that the 
BPU used excessive force, and that at least two of the killings 
happened on the Indonesian side of the border.  Based on the 
information currently available, it is highly unlikely that the 
alleged militia members were in the area only to fish, and the 
accounts of their attack on the BPU officers are consistent and 
credible.  However, it also appears that the use of deadly force 
by the BPU officers may have been unnecessary and/or excessive. 
According to sources in the border area, the situation is now 
calm and communications between the BPU and the Indonesian 
military (TNI) are normal.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On Friday, January 6, BPU officers patrolling the 
border near Tunubibi junction point near Maliana shot and killed 
three alleged members of a 1999-era anti-independence militia 
who had reportedly crossed into East Timor illegally and who the 
BPU claimed violently resisted arrest.  The BPU officers 
involved reported the following sequence of events to a United 
Nations police advisor (UNPOL) investigating the incident: 
--- Four BPU officers on patrol near Tunabibi in the Maliana 
area of the border saw footprints and decided to investigate 
them.  Following the footprints, they came upon three men who 
started running when they saw the BPU officers.  The BPU 
officers pursued them until they reached a small body of water 
where the three stopped and turned to fight. 
--- Two of the suspects attacked one BPU officer, hitting him 
with rocks and cutting his hand with a machete.  When he lost 
consciousness they seized his rifle, but in the process dropped 
the magazine into the water. 
--- Meanwhile the third suspect, identified as Jose Mausorte, 
had attacked another BPU officer and pinned him down.  He was 
pushing the officer's head into the water and reaching for the 
officer's rifle, which subsequently released a shot that hit no 
one.  The officer being attacked shouted to his two remaining 
colleagues to shoot Mausorte. 
--- One of the two standing BPU officers, identified as Martinho 
Lelo Mali, then shot Mausorte in the side. 
-- The other two suspects, with the rifle they had seized, then 
began running toward the river approximately 50 meters away. 
The BPU officers commanded them to stop and fired warning shots, 
at which point the suspects turned around and one of them aimed 
the rifle at the officers.  Officer Mali then fired and hit both 
of them. (The rifle wielded by the suspects was the one with the 
missing magazine, but the BPU officers claimed that one round 
remained in the firearm.) 
-- When the three fallen men were checked, they were all found 
to be dead. 
 
¶3. (SBU) A United States UNPOL stationed in Maliana went to the 
scene of the incident several hours later as part of the follow 
on investigation to interview the officers involved and review 
the evidence.  Items found belonging to the dead men were two 
machetes and a couple of sacks of corn.  According to the UNPOL, 
the three bodies did not appear to have been moved and their 
locations and their wounds were consistent with the BPU 
officers' description of the events.  The UNPOL did, however, 
express concern about the fact that four armed officers were 
unable to detain three lightly armed men without using deadly 
force. 
 
¶4. (U) A source at the United Nations-East Timor Serious Crimes 
Unit (SCU) confirmed that two of the men killed were 
investigated by the SCU in connection with crimes committed in 
¶1999.  Jose Mausorte in particular was investigated in 
connection with an April 1999 incident where attacks on a 
village by the Guntur Mera Putih and Halalintar militias 
 
DILI 00000018  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
resulted in three deaths.  Mausorte was also a suspect in two 
violent cross-border incidents in 2003 and 2005 (see Reftels A 
and B).  In the 2003 incident, a group of about 10 militia 
members attacked a bus and killed two people, and one of the 
attackers told UN investigators that his group was one of 
several that had been sent into East Timor as part of a 
co-ordinated effort to commit crimes and destabilize the country 
(see Reftel A).  Mausorte was one of six "most wanted" suspects 
whose pictures are posted at all BPU posts.  Mausorte's wife and 
five children reside in Cailaco, a village near where the 2005 
incident took place, so he was also believed to have made 
frequent cross-border trips for which at least one motive was to 
visit his family. 
 
¶5. (U) East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta called a 
meeting of chiefs of diplomatic missions in Dili this morning to 
provide a briefing on the incident.  Ramos Horta turned the 
briefing over to Foreign Ministry Director-General Nelson 
Santos, who is familiar with this area of the border in his 
capacity as East Timor's lead negotiator in the ongoing effort 
to demarcate the border with Indonesia.  Santos gave an account 
quite similar to the BPU version set forth in paragraph 2.  He 
added that the group of suspects originally consisted of five 
people, of whom two escaped across the border to Indonesia. 
Santos also said that the BPU members had seen one of the 
suspects drop or throw a home-made pistol into the river. 
Responding to reports in the Indonesian press that the men had 
crossed over into East Timor only to fish, Santos said it was 
impossible to fish in the river at this time of year because 
heavy rains have made the current too swift and filled the river 
with mud and floating debris. 
 
¶6. (U) Two Indonesian diplomats in attendance at the Foreign 
Ministry briefing then forcefully presented a very different 
version of the incident.  According to a printed chronology of 
the events that they distributed at the meeting, the three who 
were killed were part of a group of five "former citizens of 
East Timor" who were on the Indonesian side of the border and 
had gone there to fish in the river that runs along the border. 
Only one of the party crossed into East Timor in order to pick 
corn.  The remaining four then heard shots fired from across the 
border, prompting two of them to flee.  The Indonesian 
chronology does make reference to one of the men killed having 
seized an officer's weapon, but it notes the loss of the 
magazine and claims that the other two were shot while running 
away.  The Indonesian diplomats argued angrily that this 
incident constituted a violation of human rights.  They also 
said that early East Timorese accounts of the incident had 
claimed there was a gunfight between the two sides, which 
everyone now seems to agree did not happen, and they claimed 
that when they had asked Antonio DaCosta, the commander of East 
Timor's BPU, about the incident he had responded that the BPU 
would "kill everyone who trespasses the border."  Finally, they 
said that the incident was a violation of East Timor President 
Xanana Gusmao's alleged promise to ex-militia members that he 
would guarantee their safety if they returned to East Timor (see 
Reftel C) and implied that the alleged promise and the 
subsequent attack on the alleged fishermen may have been part of 
a scheme.  (Note: the Indonesian Embassy officer who took the 
lead in this presentation, Police Colonel Minton Mariaty, is a 
"police liaison" officer who has been known for some time to 
maintain close contacts with the leaders of militia or 
ex-militia organizations based in West Timor.) 
 
¶7. (U) Reiterating a Government of Indonesia demand that had 
been reported in press accounts, the two Indonesian diplomats 
presented a letter calling upon the East Timorese authorities to 
conduct a joint investigation with Indonesian security forces. 
Ramos Horta immediately agreed to the joint investigation 
proposal, saying that he had already discussed the idea with 
Prime Minister Alkatiri. 
 
¶8. (U) The Indonesian diplomats also urged that the bodies of 
the two diplomats be returned to West Timor today.  Timorese 
Foreign Ministry representative Santos responded that the bodies 
could not be returned until after autopsies had been done. 
Indonesian police Col. Mariaty responded that there were 18,000 
persons of East Timorese origin in West Timor, many of whom were 
very angry and were demanding that the bodies be returned.  She 
said it would be in the best interest of all sides for the 
autopsy to be completed today and the bodies returned to West 
Timor immediately.  East Timor police officials said later today 
 
DILI 00000018  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
that Jose Mausorte's body would be turned over to his wife in 
East Timor and that the other two bodies would probably be 
returned soon, although not today, to the decedents' families in 
West Timor. 
 
¶9. (U) Comment:  While the Indonesian diplomats' claim that the 
group was just "former citizens of East Timor" on a fishing trip 
seems most unlikely, their complaint that excessive force was 
used may well be valid.  Embassy Dili will continue to monitor 
developments related to this incident, including the ongoing UN 
investigation and information on the medical condition of the 
injured BPU officer who is now in Dili Hospital, and will report 
further on any developments of interest.  End comment. 
REES