Fw: New pro-Indonesia group in E.Timor (fwd)

rc-am rcollins at netlink.com.au
Mon Sep 20 21:04:31 PDT 1999


[Guterres was part of the official Indonesian Govt welcoming party for the UN's Commissioner on Refugees who visited the camps in west timor a couple of days ago. and, there is certainly a move to enforce a partition on the ground, a partitioning of the coffee plantations to be precise. estimates of militia numbers are certainly overblown. a report last night suggested that only around 20% of all the militia were committed, and one journalist described how some of the militia would refer to the bulk of their number as "neck militia", ie., they are afraid of their own necks and this is why they join. whether a band of paid, reluctant mercenaries, made up mostly of lumpenised youth from west timor and indonesian military will be able to effect partition remains to be seen. the connected issue of what happens in indonesia over the next couple of months (with the security bill, the presidential and deputy pres elections, etc. might well determine much of this. and, a brief note: there is no widespread level of 'anti-western' sentiment in indonesia at the moment, unless one describes the rallies of military families and the vestiges of Golkar as 'widespread'. - Angela.]

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.



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