INDONESIANS KILLED AT LEAST 25 IN EAST TIMOR, BISHOP SAYS.(MAIN)

Byline: -- Associated Press

LIQUICA, Indonesia -- Anti-independence militiamen backed by the Indonesian army shot or hacked at least 25 people to death in East Timor, the region's Roman Catholic bishop said Wednesday.

Saying he was ``ashamed to be an Indonesian,'' Bishop Carlos Belo condemned the violence in an emotional news conference held after inspecting a bloodied churchyard where Tuesday's killings took place. Citing witness accounts, he feared the toll may rise in the town of Liquica, 18 miles west of East Timor's capital, Dili.

Belo demanded Indonesian President B.J. Habibie investigate Tuesday's violence, the latest between bitterly divided armed groups either for or against independence from Indonesia, which annexed East Timor in 1976.

The bishop, who won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, also demanded the international community help prevent more violence in the territory.