Mass killings may be exaggerated8217;

DILI, SEPT 24: Horror stories of mass executions in East Timor, including the murder of almost 100 priests and nuns by the military and m...

DILI, SEPT 24: Horror stories of mass executions in East Timor, including the murder of almost 100 priests and nuns by the military and militia, have yet to be borne out, and evidence uncovered by The Guardian in the capital suggests that they may be exaggerated. So far 15 bodies have been found in the capital Dili, which has a population of 130,000, and another three on the outskirts of the city, the United Nations says.

However, 30,000 people are hiding in the hills above the city and have yet to come down to tell their story The extent of the killing outside the capital is also unknown.

On Wednesday, the head of the British forces, Brigadier David Richards, when asked about evidence of mass killings, said: 8220;The bodies would have been all over the place. I haven8217;t seen evidence of that.8221;

In three days of investigation in Dili, The Guardian interviewed almost 100 refugees, only one of whom had had a relative murdered.

In an account broadcast by television networks around the world,an Australian aid worker claimed that she had seen 8220;bodies piled up to the ceiling8221; in the cells of the Polda police headquarters, with 8220;blood streaming down the wall8221;.

When The Guardian visited the headquarters on Wednesday, which had just been abandoned by the Indonesian army, the cells were littered with rotting food and rubbish. There was no sign of blood or any attempt to clean the cells.

A second report of 20 people being murdered in the diocesan offices at the port also appears to be untrue. While the offices were burned, there was no blood, no evidence of charred remains and no smell of decaying bodies.

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Father Francisco, a diocesan priest at Bishop Carlos Belo8217;s headquarters in Dili, said that reports that pro-Jakarta militiamen had opened fire on refugees, killing dozens of them, were also untrue. He said one man had died at the bishop8217;s house. Despite reports that up to 100 priests and nuns were killed in the two weeks after the pro-independence vote, the total number is believed tobe four.

8220;We know three priests at Suai were killed and one priest in Dili,8221; Fr Francisco said. Hundreds of refugees have been sheltered by Fr Francisco in the bishop8217;s garden since the referendum on August 30, but he said none had reported mass killings or mass graves.

8220;I have heard individual reports of a body here and there, but none of mass killings.8221;

As the peacekeepers fans out across the country, there will undoubtedly be details of killings, particularly in towns like Liquica and Suai, where the militia were reportedly most brutal.

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But the emerging pattern is of people terrorised into leaving their homes rather than mass executions.

The Observer News Service