Agence France Presse
New pro-Indonesia coalition group, including militia, set up in ETimor
JAKARTA, Sept 20 (AFP) - Pro-Jakarta groups in East Timor,
including the armed militias who burned the capital of Dili, have
signalled they have not given up the fight and are regrouping.
The chilling message reached Jakarta Monday, by television and
through the state Antara news agency, as the first heavily-armed
international troops landed in relays at Dili's Comoro airport from
northern Australia.
Four main groups had gathered in front of "hundreds" of people just
inside the East Timorese border Sunday to form a new coalition, the
National Unity Front (FPB), to "defend" their ties with Indonesia,
they said.
The message they sent was mixed.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting in the town of Balibo Antara
quoted the leaders of the coalition, new at least in name, as
saying they would not attack the Australian-led peacekeepers.
"We will not attack the UN peacekeeping troops," the front's deputy
chairman Joao da Silva Tavares told the SCTV private Indonesian
television.
But Tavares said the Front sought to defend "our territory."
And the official declaration said they would "defend the wholeness
of the Unitary State of the republic of Indonesia and free East
Timor from the chains of neo-colonialism and the grips of new
colonialists."
"The proclamation of the National Unity Front is purely to unify
steps in defending integration," said Domingos Soares, the
executive chairman of the new group.
The declaration was made at the site of the "Integration monument"
in Balibo where several East Timorese leaders in 1975 called for
the integration of the former Portuguese colony with Indonesia.
Monday, the UN-sanctioned International Force for East Timor began
to deploy soldiers and is expected to have 2,500 men in place by
the end of Tuesday, the Indonesian military said.
The new pro-integration group, according to Antara, read out a
three point declaration that included the establishment of the
Front, which they called "the sole forum for the struggle of
fighters."
They also declared all previous pro-Indonesia groups disbanded.
Soares said the Front was established in the face of "fraud and
irregularities" by the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) while
organizing the ballot on the future of East Timor on August 30.
"The collusion between UNAMET and the East Timorese separatists has
caused UNAMET to act unfairly. They made every effort to allow the
aims of international conspirators to be reached," he said.
Pro-Indonesian supporters, who lost the ballot and rampaged through
the territory's cities in an orgy of burning, have accused UNAMET
of fraud.
The outcome of the ballot, announced on September 4 showed 78.5
percent of voters opted for breaking away from Indonesia which
invaded it in 1975 and annexed it the following year.
Voting to remain with Indonesia under a broad autonomy were 21.5
percent.
The armed pro-Indonesia militia in their unchecked campaign of
terror and violence following the announcement of the results,
killed pro-independentists and forced hundreds of thousands of
people to flee for their lives.
The violence led to an international outcry that in turn led the
United Nations to deploy a multinational force to restore law and
order.
Eurico Guterres, one of the main militia commanders in the Dili
area, has repeated several times his men would not touch the
peacekeepers if they confined themselves to the east.
But Guterres warned against trying to operate in the fertile
western border areas.
In Jakarta, Indonesian military spokesman Major General Sudrajat
estimated the pro-Jakarta militia had around 50,000
followers, but gave no estimate of their fire power.
The International force in East Timor (Interfet) is expected to
have a full strength of 7,500 men, but with heavy weapons, tanks,
backup warships and planes.
"I heard Guterres claims to have 50,000 men. But you'd better ask
him again," Sudrajat told journalists.
Guterres is the leader of the notorious Dili-based Aitarak (Thorn)
militia, which laid Dili to waste in just a week earlier this
month. He was seen in West Timor Sunday by an AFP journalist in the
company of provincial military officials.
"It is difficult to put it quantitatively," Sudrajat said when
asked his own estimate of the militias' strength.
Guterres, who is also deputy commander of the main militia group
Pro-Integration Forces (PPI) which was absorbed into the Front,
said the militia will put eight of the territory's 13 districts,
districts he claimed were militia strongholds, off limits to the
international force.