A notorious East Timorese militia leader returned to his homeland Wednesday, saying he was ready to face trial over the wave of violence that surrounded its 1999 vote for independence from Indonesia.
Nemecio Lopes de Carvalho, who was a leader of the Mahidi (Indonesia, Live or Die) militia, crossed into United Nations-administered East Timor at around 9:00 am (2400 GMT Tuesday) with hundreds of his followers, a UN official said.
He arrived in the capital Dili in the afternoon.
Since last year Lopes de Carvalho has been promising to return with thousands of followers. They are among an estimated quarter of a million people who either fled to Indonesian West Timor or were forced to flee, after the independence vote.
The militias, with the backing of Indonesian police and soldiers, murdered hundreds of East Timorese and set whole towns alight in retaliation for the vote.
Carvalho was one of four militia leaders who wrote to the UN in New York begging for protection from Indonesian military officers, in return for revealing who was behind the 1999 violence -- East Timor, (AFP)
