NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      DILI, East Timor (CWNews.com) - More than 2,000 students protested in Dili on Tuesday, demanding an investigation into the reported massacre of up to 50 civilians by Indonesian soldiers last week.

      The students, who occupied the parliament building, demanded action by the Indonesian government on the murder or torture of civilians in a crackdown on rebels around the village of Alas. Former East Timor governor Mario Carrascalao had previously told reporters that at least 42 people had been killed in the crackdown.

      Carrascalao, governor until 1992, said Catholic officials in the predominantly Catholic region told him up to 50 died. Nobel peace laureate Bishop Carlos Belo of Dili refused to comment in Jakarta on Tuesday, where he was attending a bishops' conference. Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, invaded mainly Catholic East Timor, a former Portugese colony, in 1975 and annexed it the following year in a move not recognized by the United Nations.