Most of Indonesia's senior military officers based in the disputed territory of East Timor died yesterday in a helicopter crash in which there were no survivors, military officials said.
Eleven people on board the Bell 205 helicopter were killed in the crash in heavy rain and a lone survivor died in hospital in Baucau before he could be transported to Dili, the capital, they said.
Lieut-Col Supadi, chief-of-staff of the East Timor military region, blamed the crash on bad weather.
A military official involved in the rescue said the helicopter crashed after clipping trees in the hills near Viqueque, about 200 km south-east of Dili.
"The head of the Udayana military command Maj-Gen Yudomo was one of the victims. The East Timor army chief Col Slamet Sidabutar was also killed," LieutCol Supadi said.
The dead included Col Sidabutar's assistants for intelligence and operations, the commander of the territory's eastern sector, the head of operations at the local military district, MajGen Yudomo's adjutant as well as the helicopter's pilot, co-pilot and two support crew.
They were on a working visit to Maj-Gen Yudomo, who had taken over as commander of the Udayana region, which stretches from the island of Bali to Timor.
That was part of an army reshuffle two weeks ago in the wake of former President Suharto's resignation.
Lieut-Col Supadi blamed the crash on bad weather and said the helicopter exploded into flames after hitting a mountain while travelling from the north coast town of Baucau across the rugged interior to Viqueque on the island's south coast.
He said the accident had no connection with guerrillas sheltering in the mountains of East Timor, where Indonesia still faces armed resistance in the former Portuguese colony.
The official Antara news agency quoted Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Belo in Dili offering his condolences for Lieut-Col Yudomo and the other victims.
A pro-independence East Timorese group denied that its supporters had shot down the helicopter. "The information that we have from the interior leads us to believe it was an accident," said Mr Roque Rodrigues, spokesman of the Falintil, the armed wing of the Socialist Association of Timor.
David Shanks adds: A call by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs to the EU Presidency, Britain, to push ahead with a proposed EU Troika visit to East Timor next week despite Indonesian objections, has been welcomed by the East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign. The group also welcomed the committee's call for the immediate release of political prisoners including the rebel Timorese leader, Mr Xanama Gusmao, and an end to all arms sales to Indonesia.