The Wire

Today, one of the buildings looted was not a food store but infact the Attorney general’s office. And it was documents relating to another period of unrest in Timor Leste’s history that were the target of the looters. According to reports, a group of men armed with machetes looted the office today, damaging evidence of massacres carried out in 1999 in relation to Timor’s independence vote. While up to 1500 people were killed in the massacres, few have been held to account. John Miller, head of the US-based NGO The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network, says the lack of prosecutions brought against those who committed war crimes in 1999, has set a dangerous precedent for Timor.