The area around the East Timor town of Alas is in a state of siege, which the military say will not be lifted until stolen weapons are returned. It is under a 4 p.m. to dawn curfew and its electricity has been cut off since November 9th.
Shops are closed and villagers are not allowed to work in the fields. Only Catholic clergy and social workers are allowed in and out. The school and clinic are closed, as staff are in hiding.
Another church source claimed that several women had been raped by soldiers in the village of Turiscai in the same area.
Sources said the Indonesian army had moved in troops from the 744th and 745th Battalion of the Korpasus army group, and marines and the 635th District Local Military Command. Protesting students marched to the parliament building in Dili yesterday morning after a meeting at the University of East Timor near by. High school students in uniforms arrived packed in trucks and singing patriotic songs.
The protesters draped banners from the building calling for independence for the former Portuguese colony annexed by Indonesia on July 16th, 1976. One showed a soldier killing children with the slogan "Tragedy in Alas".
The soldiers made no attempt to stop the students and kept a low profile. Demonstrations have been allowed in Dili since the fall of President Suharto and the beginning of the dialogue involving Portugal and Indonesia over the future of East Timor and its 800,000 people.
Several speakers addressing the students from the roof of the porch demanded a ceasefire enforced by UN peacekeepers and the withdrawal of Indonesian forces before any referendum on the future of East Timor.
"Dili is peaceful but the repression continues in the countryside every day," said a student leader, echoing similar claims by church activists.
"We know of people being regularly beaten and sometimes shot in the countryside," said one Catholic Church source. "There, nothing has changed."
A former political prisoner called Matias told the students: "We have been struggling for independence since 1912 in Portuguese times. We don't want autonomy, we want independence." "What else can we do?" asked one student organiser as dozens of young people settled in for the night. "We have no vote, no weapons. So tomorrow we change strategy if the governor refuses to meet us and take our demands to the military. We may call a strike."
Reuters adds: Indonesia denied yesterday that 44 people had been killed during the crackdown in East Timor.
"It is not true that 44 people died," a Foreign Ministry spokesman claimed. "We have checked our data. We found out that names and other details are inaccurate," he said without elaborating.
In Dili yesterday, students shouted "Viva Xanana Gusmao" and accused the Indonesian military of killings, arrests and torture during last week's crackdown against the Fretilin guerrilla movement in Alas district.
Xanana, Fretilin's leader, is serving a 20-year jail term at a prison in Jakarta for opposing Indonesia's rule of the former Portuguese colony.
A former East Timor governor, Mr Mario Carascalao, was quoted by the Portuguese news agency Lusa as saying on Sunday 44 people had been killed and 40 others injured when troops raided Alas.
Reports of the killings prompted Portugal to suspend talks with Jakarta.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Jaime Gama, said in Lisbon on Friday he had ordered diplomats at the UN to halt a scheduled meeting with Indonesian representatives.
In Lisbon yesterday, the office of Nobel Peace Laureate Dr Jose Ramos-Horta insisted that over 50 people had died in recent days in East Timor.
"We have confirmed it with religious sources in East Timor," a spokeswoman for Dr Ramos-Horta said. "At least 50 people are dead," she said.
A small guerrilla band, numbering some 200 according to the Indonesian authorities, continues to harass the occupation forces.
Red Cross officials have not yet been able to reach Alas, a village of some 500 people. Timorese resistance officials say it is still cut off from the rest of East Timor by the military.
According to religious sources quoted by Portuguese media, Indonesian troops raided Alas after a group of guerrillas attacked a military post, killing three soldiers and escaping with weapons.
"We do not know how it started. All we know is that the Indonesians killed the people," Dr Ramos-Horta's spokeswoman said.
If confirmed, the violence would be the worst single incident since 1991 when some 200 people were killed during demonstrations in Dili.
Dr Ramos-Horta was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 jointly with the Catholic Bishop of Dili, Dr Carlos Belo, for their efforts to bring peace to the troubled territory.