http://www.theage.com.au/world/mass-grave-halts-timor-hotel-work-20100313-q52c.html
Mass grave halts Timor hotel work LINDSAY MURDOCH March 14, 2010 NINE blindfolded bodies found during construction of a beachfront hotel near Dili are believed to be East Timorese freedom fighters who were executed and buried in a mass grave. Experts say the executions probably took place in the early years of Indonesia's occupation of the former Portuguese colony. Two of the victims were wearing Portuguese military uniforms, which many freedom fighters wore at the time of the 1975 Indonesian invasion. The bodies were uncovered in Tasi Tolu, 12 kilometres west of Dili, where construction of a five-star hotel started last month. Indonesian soldiers were known to have used Tasi Tolu as a killing ground. Pope John Paul II said Mass there in 1989 and it was the site of independence celebrations in 2002. President Jose Ramos-Horta initially speculated that the bodies were victims of the 1991 massacre at Dili's Santa Cruz cemetery, because it was known the bodies of some of those killed were taken to Tasi Tolu. Construction of the hotel has stopped while experts with the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and the East Timor government sift the remains, some of which have been underwater for years. The bodies were found in two machine-dug graves about two metres deep. ''They were piled on top of each other,'' said Soren Blau, a scientist with the institute. An East Timor inquiry into human rights abuses found in 2005 that about 180,000 civilians died during Indonesia's 25-year occupation. Gregorio Saldanha of the 12th of November Committee, which searches for victims' remains, said families hoped to rebury the remains.
