Wednesday, August 18, 1999 Published at 13:45 GMT 14:45 UK
Timor activists warn of cyber war
Gunmen shot at the offices of the main independence group on Tuesday
The Nobel laureate warned that a 100-strong team of hackers in Europe and North America had prepared a campaign that would cause economic devastation to Indonesia.
"One computer wizard recently told me, 'We will terminate their banking system. We will invade their sites and destroy them...We will cause them to lose hundreds of millions of dollars'," he added.
The warnings come as East Timor prepares to choose between Jakarta's offer of autonomy or full independence.
But Mr Horta has warned that the ballot could turn into the biggest electoral fraud in modern times.
He said Indonesia's army intended to get a pro-integration vote through by terror and fraud.
Mr Horta alleged that a violent campaign by pro-Jakarta militias had already
He said the vote was also compormised by
"All this makes for an extremely dangerous situation. Full-scale violence before or after the ballot is now almost certain," Mr Horta added.
Mr Horta's comments came as Amnesty International also warned that Indonesia's failure to halt the bloodshed in East Timor - mainly by pro-Jakarta militias - threatened to prevent a fair ballot.
Indonesia invaded East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, in 1975 and annexed it the following year in a move not recognised by the UN.
Human rights groups say more than 200,000 people died, many of them from starvation, in the years since the invasion.