The Nobel peace laureate, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, yesterday accused Indonesian-backed militia of massacring more than 25 people in East Timor outside a church.
Bishop Belo was speaking at a press conference with Father Rafael Dos Santos who described how refugees sheltering in his church and home at Liquisa, 30 km west of the Timorese capital Dili, were hacked down with machetes.
Bishop Belo also said after visiting Liquisa that the massacre was "proof that Xanana is right" - alluding to a call from house arrest by the rebel leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, on Monday for his people to take up arms.
The Indonesian Justice Minister, Mr Muladi, said yesterday he would meet Mr Gusmao for talks over his "unacceptable" call to supporters to renew armed struggle in defence of the people.
"I will meet with Xanana to ask him about his statement - Whatever his reasons, he cannot call for war," Mr Muladi told reporters, adding that Mr Gusmao had stepped outside the boundaries governing his special house arrest.
Portugal's envoy to Indonesia, Ms Ana Gomes, called for an international inquiry into the massacre after meeting Mr Gusmao.
"An international presence is absolutely necessary in East Timor to calm the tension and to deter the violence, from whoever is intending to launch it," Ms Gomes said.
"This time in Liquisa, there were no observers. Nobody knows what happened yet," she said.
The Indonesian military chief, Gen Wiranto, rejected a call for UN peacekeepers made by Mr Gusmao, insisting that problems in East Timor were "the internal concerns of the Republic of Indonesia".
The UN has also rejected the calls for peacekeepers, but expressed concern over the violence in the former Portuguese colony.
Father Dos Santos said Indonesian mobile brigade police stood behind the militia during the attack, and fired into the air.
When the attack began "people ran for cover wherever they could", he said. Some ran into his house and some into the church before being forced out when troops fired teargas into the buildings.
"When they came out of the church, their eyes streaming, they were mown down, hacked to death with machetes, by the Besi Merah Putih [BMP - Red and White Iron militia]," he said.
Bishop Belo travelled to Liquisa yesterday with Indonesia's East Timor military commander, Col Tono Suratman.
"I have a paper from the military commander that there were 25 bodies inside the priest's house," he said, "but according to other witnesses outside around the church there were other bodies. I don't know exactly how many."
The bishop had been quoted by the Portugese news agency Lusa on Tuesday as saying he had first been informed by the Indonesian military of the deaths of 40 people in the church and five in the priest's house.
The Indonesian military spokesman, Maj General Syamsul Maarif, said however that only five civilians were killed during the violence.
"Firstly I am sad, for what happened in Liquisa. . . secondly I am ashamed to be a citizen of the [Indonesian] republic. It has taken us back to the middle ages," Bishop Belo said.
"This is a tragedy, a killing just like what happened in Santa Cruz in 1991," he said, referring to the massacre of pro-independence demonstrators in Dili which left 50 dead according to an official toll and more than 200 according to other reports.
He said President B.J. Habibie should set up a special military council to investigate the massacre.
Mr Pierre Gerber, of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jakarta, said: "The ICRC could not proceed to Liquisa because of concerns for the security of its delegates."
David Shanks adds:
Monday's call to arms by Mr Gusmao is a direct result of the breaking of a ceasefire accord last month between Mr Gusmao and Mr Joao da Silva Tavares, leader of the BMP, the main paramilitary group. In spite of the "brotherly" accord between the two leaders, the BMP resumed its violent campaign against civilians.