Aitarak

Aitarak (Tetun for 'thorn') was the name of one of the most feared pro-Indonesia militia groups in East Timor during the late 1990s. On April 17, 1999, the group conducted 12 murders at the Manuel Carrascalão House Massacre in Dili. That same month members took part in the Liquiçá Church Massacre. At its height, the group was led by Eurico Guterres.

In 1999, following the autonomy referendum, during which East Timor citizens voted to separate from Indonesia and become independent, Indonesian military forces began a slow withdrawal from East Timor. In the course of this, they practiced what is referred to as the Timor-Leste Scorched Earth campaign, burning and destroying everything in their path.

They were assisted greatly in this by East Timorese pro-Indonesian militias. The militia groups for each district of East Timor were even more ruthless than the Indonesian military in most cases. Often, they knew their victims, and in many well-documented cases they had known their victims their entire lives, usually coming from the same villages or neighborhoods.

The Aitarak gained the most notoriety, because they were the main militia group in the capital city and Dili district as a whole. It was here where international press were most present, and then the reports were mostly about what happened in Dili itself, and therefore with the Aitarak.

Cases such as the Liquiçá Church Massacre, and the Suai Church Massacre, as well as Catholic nuns that were killed in Lospalos were largely unknown for a time.

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