Accused former militia leader Martenus Bere in 1999. Photo: Tempo Semanal

Pacific.Scoop
By Tempo Semanal in Dili

President José Ramos-Horta has denied claims that former Laksaur militia commander Maternus Bere has been spirited across the border into West Timor from the Indonesian Embassy in the Timor-Leste capital of Dili.

According to a Tempo Semanal source within the government before Horta left the country on October 19 for the presidential inauguration in Indonesia, he called an urgent meeting with acting Prime Minister Jose Luis Gutteres to discuss the Bere case.

The source said: “The President is concerned about Bere’s health and that the case of Marternus Bere has to be solved in the near future.”

Apparantly Bere has some health problems and Horta wanted to resolve this case as soon as possible, Tempo Semanal said.

Guterres called Justice Minister Mana Lucia to his office late in the morning of October 19 before the president’s plane left from Dili, Tempo Semanal reported.

Reports were later circulating in Dili saying Bere had left Timor-Leste for the Indonesian province of West Timor on the night of October 20 in an Indonesian Embassy car.

Martenus Bere, indicted by the United Nations for alleged war crime atrocities in the lead up to East Timorese independence, arrived in the country on August 5 to participate in a funeral of one of his relatives in Suai district, which suffered from a pro-Indonesian militia attack in September 1999.

He was arrested in Suai on August 9 – before the  10th anniversary of the notorious Suai church massacre after UN referendum vote for independence on 6 September 1999.

Bere was released on the August 30 from preventive detention in Dili’s Bekora Prison, triggering a major scandal for the Timorese leadership.

The Fretilin-led parliamentary opposition called for a vote no confidence but this was defeated.

According to Tempo Semanal sources, the Opposition and civil society groups still plan to take the government to court over the Bere case. – Pacific Media Centre

Timor war crimes need justice