East Timor: After the violence

On 5 and 6 June the ICRC was granted access to all 23 people still being held in connection with the violent attack on a police barracks in Dili, the capital of East Timor, on 28 May. Twenty of them are at Dili Police Headquarters, while the remaining three, who were injured in the incident, are in the city's military hospital. Seven of the detainees were visited on the first day, the 16 others on the next.  Twenty-five arrests had been reported after the attack, which happened on the eve of the Indonesian general election, but two people were released on 6 June.

Earlier in the week, on 3 and 4 June, the ICRC went to the town of Baucau, east of Dili, to collect information on an ambush there on 31 May in which a number of policemen were killed. The team saw the commander of sector A, the chief of police, the deputy head of the military district, and a number of representatives of civil society. Reportedly, thus far there have been no arrests in connection with this incident. While in Baucau, the delegates met the family of the two civilians killed in another attack there on 28 May. The ICRC is also scheduled to meet the families of the policemen who died in the ambush on 31 May.

The ICRC has been present in East Timor since 1974, working as a neutral intermediary to facilitate dialogue between the population and the Indonesian authorities.