Den protestantiske kirkes overhode, og tysk jesuitt, myrdet i Dili (engelsk)

A pastor of the Protestant Church, Francisco de Vasconcelos Ximenes, was killed yesterday, with a gun-shot to the head, on the road that takes from Dili to Baucau. The pastor, who was head of the Protestant Church in Timor, was taken from the Hosanna Church of Dili where he was sheltered with about one hundred worshippers and executed in cold blood. While the tragedy of the Church of East Timor continues: yesterday a German Jesuit (head of the Jesuit Refugee Service - JRS), Father Karl Albrecht, was assassinated. In the meantime, in Dili the militias and army are systematically hunting down independence leaders and supporters throughout the neighbourhoods of the city and camps where thousands are sheltered attempting to escape the massacres and summary executions. Despite the confirmed acceptance of Indonesian President Jusuf Habibie and a part of the government for the intervention of an international peace-keeping force in East Timor, the decision was strongly contested by those opposed to the results of the independence referendum: demonstrators are protesting and destroying the buildings of Australian Organisations and those of other nations. If the deployment of the peace-keeping force is delayed much longer, there will be nothing left but a cemetery of innocent victims. (BO)

MISNA - Missionary Service News Agency