Associated Press

November 14, 1994

DILI, Indonesia (AP) -- The Indonesian military said it had arrested 87 demonstrators in troubled East Timor as armed troops and police confronted pro-independence protesters for a second day Monday.

Witnesses said several hundred security personnel were guarding government buildings in the provincial capital, Dili, where rioting broke out Sunday.

Others said the bloodied body of an indigenous Timorese man, apparently killed in Sunday's clash, was found lying in a street early Monday.

However, the military said it knew of no casualties.

Police were blocking entrances to the city's university to stop outsiders from joining a campus demonstration by about 500 students who oppose Indonesian rule of the former Portuguese colony.

The unrest spotlighted Indonesia's human rights record as President Clinton joined other leaders at a Pacific rim trade summit where Indonesian President Suharto was host.

Stores, offices and schools in many parts of Dili remained closed.

Police also were guarding the house of the territory's spiritual leader, Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo, a strident critic of Indonesia who has called for calm.

Witnesses rejected the military's arrest figure, saying about 150 people had been taken into custody.

They said some had been hurt in small clashes with security personnel but exact injury figures were not immediately available. Maj. Gen. Adang Rutciana, eastern Indonesia's military commander, said the majority of those arrested would be released after questioning.

Col. Kiki Syanakri, East Timor's military commander, described the situation as tense. He said the military would concentrate on capturing ring leaders of the protest.

In Jakarta, 1,500 miles (2,500 kilometers)j to the west, 29 East Timorese students continued a sit-in on the grounds of the U.S. Embassy, which they entered Saturday by climbing a fence.

They want to give Clinton or Secretary of State Warren Christopher a petition demanding independence for the province, invaded by Indonesia in 1975 and annexed the following year.

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