Transition & reconstruction

Editorial: A new year in East Timor

Sydney Morning Herald - January 6, 2003

Xanana Gusmao's first new year's address as president of an independent East Timor encapsulated the fragility of his young nation. At the heart of Mr Gusmao's message was an appeal for peace.

The unity which bound the people of East Timor through the long, bitter independence struggle against Indonesia is fraying. Underlying popular resentment of the new, indigenous political elite erupted into riots in the capital, Dili, late last year.

The bridging of these divisions is now crucial if the goal of a viable, independent nation is to be realised. Unfortunately, this future is far from assured. The problems, and challenges, of a tiny, desperately poor new country are immense. The extreme deprivation and suffering endured during the guerilla war against Indonesia's military fuelled unrealistically high community expectations. Those who believe they should now be rewarded for their sacrifices have discovered that independence, of itself, delivers little. East Timor's per capita income is less than $100 a month. With no industrial base, few agricultural exports, and poor education and training levels, there is little short-term prospect of an economic turn. Unemployment of close to 70 per cent means many former guerilla fighters are now idle and edgy. The benefits of large foreign aid packages are flowing to too few, most visibly the new, political elite.

Theoretically, the job can be done. Sufficient international aid has been pledged to subsidise the national budget until income from oil reserves in the Timor Gap comes on line to balance the budget in 2006. The proper management of those aid funds is now in the hands of an elected national government. However, this government is facing persistent allegations of corruption, including claims that senior officials are demanding cars and cash payments from potential foreign investors. There are also serious community frustrations over the inefficient administration of basic services, and petty corruption within.

Mr Gusmao clearly understands the perilous divisions which are emerging. But the office of president is largely ceremonial. It must now be hoped that Mr Gusmao's substantial moral authority is sufficient to rein in corrupt officials and temper popular expectations.

Australia has already invested a great deal in East Timor, and has its own legitimate security interests in a stable nation to the north. As the United Nations gradually withdraws its staff, Australia's ongoing support will become all the more important.

West Timor/refugees

No more assistance for 'refugees': Government

Jakarta Post - January 3, 2003

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta -- Those East Timorese living in camps in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) whose refugee status ended on December 31 have automatically become Indonesian citizens, a senior government official has said.

The director of the Bureau of Refugee Rescue and Protection at the National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management and Refugee Rescue (Bakornas PBP), Bakri Beck, said Thursday that all assistance previously accorded to them would be stopped.

"They must start applying for either resettlement or transmigration programs run by the government. Once they agree to participate in one of the programs, they will receive new assistance from the government," Bakri told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

According to Bakri, the new aid scheme includes housing, farmland, financial assistance, and a supply of essential goods for six to nine months, as well as support facilities like education and health centers. "With the new assistance scheme, we hope they can survive on their own harvests after nine months," he said.

As many as 250,000 East Timorese fled, or were forced to flee, to Indonesia's West Timor in 1999 after Indonesian military-backed militias went on bloody rampages triggered by the humiliating defeat of the pro-integration camp in a United Nations-organized referendum.

The violence killed hundreds of civilians, mostly independence supporters, and destroyed almost 80 percent of the infrastructure in the former Portuguese colony, which achieved full independence on May 20, 2002.

A total of 18 military and police personnel, and militiamen were brought to court for the violence, but 12 of them have been acquitted so far.

Most refugees have returned to East Timor, but some 10,000 families, amounting to 28,000 people, are still living in squalid refugee camps in West Timor. Most of these were members of the military or police, and former militiamen, as well as their families.

The government has prepared a number of resettlement sites for them in East Sumba, West Sumba and Ngada regencies, all in NTT province; while South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan have agreed to provide transmigration areas.

The "refugees" have welcomed the move, but demanded that the government provide support facilities like schools and health centers at the resettlement sites.

Bakri, however, said that not all resettlement sites would have support facilities as such facilities might be already available in the surrounding villages.

He called on the East Timorese choosing to stay in Indonesia to apply for inclusion in either a resettlement or transmigration program.

In Atambua, NTT, local authorities said that they planned to relocate at least 1,000 East Timorese families in 2003. "We are still finalizing the proposal to be submitted to the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration," the head of the local manpower and transmigration office, Embang Bela, was quoted by Antara as saying.

Meanwhile, Kupang Military District commander Lt. Col. Pieter Lobo said Thursday that the government should begin preparing proper homes for the East Timorese in resettlement locations.

"Many resettlement areas have been established, but most of the houses are not worth living in. This has made the East Timorese refugees reluctant to move there," Pieter claimed.

He said, for example, that the houses in resettlement sites in West Sumba and several locations in NTT did not have WCs, clean water or agricultural land available.

Timor Gap

Let the oil flow

Far Eastern Economic Review - January 16, 2003

Mark Dodd, Darwin -- Southeast Asia's poorest country, East Timor, could get its first royalty payments from the oil- and gas-rich Timor Sea by 2004, money which experts say will mean the difference between aid dependency and economic self-sufficiency for the troubled half-island nation.

On December 17, East Timor's parliament ratified a long-debated treaty with Australia on production, profit sharing, and distribution of royalties and taxes from oil and gas reserves. The treaty will allow a handful of foreign oil companies to begin extracting oil from the Timor Gap, the 62,000-square-kilometre joint-development zone between Timor and the coast of Australia's Northern Territory.

But East Timor Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta says at least two or three years is needed for East Timor to strengthen its state institutions in order to ensure oil and gas revenue is properly disbursed.

East Timor would receive about $3 billion from a single Timor Gap field, Bayu-Undan, over 17 years, according to spokesman Blair Murphy of ConocoPhillips. The American firm is the major stakeholder in the field in a joint venture with American, Japanese and Italian concerns. The treaty grants 90% of proceeds from Bayu-Undan to East Timor and the rest to Australia. Australia is hoping that development and a possible pipeline to its Northern Territory will bring a major economic boost to the northern state's capital, Darwin.

Development will begin once the treaty is ratified by the Australian parliament, which it is expected to do some time after it reconvenes on February 4.

Australian and East Timorese government officials meeting in Darwin said they had "substantially narrowed" their differences on revenue sharing from what could be an even more lucrative field, Greater Sunrise, with an estimated 8 trillion cubic feet of gas worth some $22 billion. ConocoPhillips has a 30% stake in Greater Sunrise, along with Woodside, Royal Dutch/Shell and Osaka Gas. Oil companies have already completed exploration and surveys and are ready to begin extraction.

But for the young nation, money might start flowing too soon, and too quickly. First payments from Bayu-Undan will arrive in East Timor by 2004, says Murphy. Horta is concerned that his government isn't prepared. "The prime minister is very cautious about spending too much money. Our administration is generally very weak. If we were to have hundreds of millions in oil and gas money now, it does not necessarily mean it would be well- managed," he warned. WEAK GOVERNANCE, STRONG INVESTMENT The United Nations had a crash programme to put East Timorese in charge of the new nation, which was officially founded on May 20, 2002. But in Horta's view, officials still lack real expertise in administration and governance.

Murphy said the rioting in December in the East Timor capital, Dili, that cost the lives of two people and left at least 20 injured would not interfere with ConocoPhillips's plans for Timor Sea oil and gas production. "We are constantly monitoring things over there and shall proceed forward," he says.

Horta was optimistic that the deadlock over revenue sharing from the Greater Sunrise field may finally be nearing resolution. East Timor believes it is entitled to 100% of revenues from Greater Sunrise but, in what could be a major concession, Horta suggests East Timor might agree to a 50-50 split with Australia. "East Timor is entitled to 100% of the rights so I hope Australia might agree to a 50% deal on Greater Sunrise," he says.

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that he expected full ratification by Canberra on both fields when parliament next sits.

Horta's appeal for more flexibility from Canberra on revenue sharing was given immediate support by Senator Bob Brown, the leader of Australian Greens Party. "East Timor is the poorest country in the region sitting next to the richest. The [Prime Minister John] Howard government is doing everything it can to keep the unjust seabed boundaries it has drawn," he told the Review.

Brown said Australia had a moral debt to help East Timor out of its grinding poverty. "It's the one resource that can give East Timor the kick-start it needs," he says, promising to raise the issue in parliament early in 2003.

Justice & reconciliation

Sentenced ex-militia chief wants reconciliation

Agence France Presse - January 3, 2003

Jakarta -- A former militia leader who is facing a jail term in Indonesia over atrocities in East Timor said Friday he plans to send a delegation to the new nation to promote reconciliation.

"Soon I'm going to lay a stone of peace at the border and send a sports delegation to East Timor to speed up reconciliation," said Eurico Guterres, speaking from Kupang in Indonesian West Timor.

Indonesia's human rights court in November sentenced the former pro-Jakarta militia chief to 10 years in jail for crimes against humanity over a massacre of East Timorese independence supporters in 1999. He is free pending an appeal.

Guterres told AFP by phone he had invited East Timor President Xanana Gusmao, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta to attend a Christmas celebration held by pro- Jakarta East Timorese in West Timor on January 4.

The theme would be "Forget the Past, Look to the Future," Guterres said. But he said Gusmao and the others could not travel to West Timor because of technical difficulties.

"We are disappointed that our good intention has not been responded to positively. We are peace-loving people, contrary to what they [East Timorese] have portrayed," he said.

Guterres led the pro-Indonesia Aitarak militia, blamed for much of the violence surrounding East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia in August 1999.

Militias armed and organised by the Indonesian military waged a campaign of intimidation before the vote and revenge afterwards. An estimated 1,000 people were killed and thousands of buildings were destroyed.

An estimated 250,000 East Timorese fled or were forced to flee to Indonesian West Timor during the violence. Most of them have returned.

Guterres, 28, said he was ready to die in exchange for the freedom of former pro-Indonesian militiamen who had been jailed in newly-independent East Timor.

"I'm not the only one who wants to return to East Timor. Other East Timorese here do too," Guterres said. "I'm ready to be hanged before the East Timorese if my death would be the last death for East Timor."

Human rights trials

A law unto themselves

Sydney Morning Herald - January 11 2003

Tom Hyland -- The accused sits with his seven lawyers in the listless heat of a Jakarta courtroom. He occasionally wipes his brow and shifts in his seat but mostly he is straight-backed, gazing with a soldier's practised stare into the middle distance. Major-General Tono Suratman, former Indonesian army commander in East Timor, seems bored.

In the witness chair, his former chief of staff, Lieutenant- Colonel Hardiono Saroso, is being questioned by the panel of judges about two of the worst massacres in East Timor in 1999 -- the slaughter of up to 60 civilians at a church compound in Liquica on April 6, and the killing 11 days later of at least 12 people sheltering in the Dili house of a pro-independence figure.

In the space of 10 minutes he replies five times that he doesn't know; five times that he doesn't remember; and twice that he has no information. He is, however, able to say that the killings were carried out by machete.

Watching the performance are about 15 members of the army's notorious special forces, Kopassus. With them, but not in uniform, sits Major-General Zacky Anwar Makarim, a Kopassus veteran who is believed to have been in direct charge of a covert operation, authorised from Jakarta, to undermine East Timor's vote on independence and then destroy the country when the vote went against them. The conspicuous Kopassus presence is an act of solidarity and a symbol of the army's defiant unrepentance for the violence of 1999.

This week's performance in Indonesia's Human Rights Court confirms what human rights groups and independent observers have been saying for months: Jakarta's effort to bring officials to account for a murderous campaign of intimidation and revenge is a farce.

"It was just a show at the start and the continuation of this process has confirmed it's still just a show," says Hendardi, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Foundation. He and other observers fear the trials have undermined Indonesia's efforts to end the culture of impunity that has surrounded the army, further tarnished the reputation of a scandal-plagued judiciary and set back attempts to establish civilian supremacy over the military.

If Suratman seems relaxed about the outcome of his trial -- he is accused of failing to prevent the killings -- then it's with good reason. Of the 18 people charged over the 1999 violence, 11 have been acquitted. Three have been found guilty, but all three are free on appeal, a process which could take years. Four other trials, including Suratman's, are still under way.

The special court was set up at a time of intense international pressure on Jakarta to bring to justice those responsible for the violence, with calls for an international tribunal to try those responsible. When Indonesia rejected this, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, accepted Jakarta's promises to set up a credible court process that met international standards.

But critics say the process was flawed even before it began, with the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri lacking the political will to bring senior officers to justice. Officials who allegedly directed the violence -- including former armed forces chief General Wiranto and Anwar -- escaped charges, even though they had been named as suspects by Indonesian's National Human Rights Commission.

"TNI [the armed forces] has an interest in protecting these people so as not to create a precedent and Megawati still depends on the military to protect her position and power," says Hendardi. "From that point onward, it was a victory for the military and police. It set a precedent that the ad hoc court is just a mechanism to ease international pressure, not to uphold justice."

The flaws were compounded by the way government lawyers framed the charges, ignoring the military chain of command and charging mostly locally based officers, not their superiors. The charges portray the events of 1999 as a conflict between East Timorese factions in which Indonesian forces were bystanders, not the leading players.

The concerns of human rights groups at the start of the trials have been confirmed as they near their end. Human Rights Watch has labelled the trials a "sham" and a "whitewash" and called for the UN to commission an experts' report to examine the failure of the court. But most observers detect international indifference now that Western countries are seeking Indonesia's support to fight terrorism.

The war on terrorism has changed the entire international dynamic, says a senior UN official who has closely followed human rights issues in East Timor since 1999. "Now, the trials need to be just 1 per cent above a joke and they'll get away with it," the official said.

A foreign diplomat who has observed the trials agrees they are so flawed that, by any reasonable standard, all of the accused should be acquitted. But he predicts that the West will be constrained in response. Moves by Australia and the US to restore ties with the Indonesian military may be complicated by the trials, but "nobody will pull the plug on Indonesia".

Although the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has raised concerns about the trials privately with his counterpart Hassan Wirajuda, public comment has been muted, with Canberra holding off final judgement while appeals are pending. For his part, Wirajuda has rejected allegations of a whitewash and denied claims that the Government was responsible for the conduct of the trials.

For despondent Indonesian activists, the trials have profound implications for the future of Indonesian democracy. They had hoped to finally end the impunity of a military which for four decades has been allowed to get away with murder. Instead, they fear the military will be emboldened.

"If this case, despite strong international interest, can be ridiculed and manipulated, then it will be far worse in other cases -- Aceh, Papua and elsewhere -- where there is no international interest," says Hendardi.

A military determined to ensure the physical integrity of the nation will continue to use violence. But that violence may have the opposite effect. "If the East Timor cases are not settled properly, I'm afraid it will create a threat of disintegration to this country, because more people will think there can be no legal solution to the human rights abuses committed by the military," Henardi says.

Crimes in East Timor unpunished

Canberra Times - January 7, 2003

James Dunn -- It is hard to feel sanguine about the latest acquittal of the Indonesian Human Rights Tribunal, which has been hearing charges against TNI (Indonesian armed forces) officers and militia leaders in relation to events in East Timor in 1999.

The tribunal has just dismissed charges against a Kopassus (Special Forces) officer who is surely one of those most responsible for the crimes against humanity that cost hundreds of lives, and the near total destruction of the territory's towns and villages.

This tribunal has now dismissed charges against 10 officers on the grounds of lack of evidence. Only one, Lieutenant-Colonel Sudjarwo, the former military commander of Dili, has been found guilty, and then only of having failed to stop the violence.

The real charges that should have been made, responsibility for the setting up of the militia units and their brutal conduct, were not laid against any of these officers.

The outcome so far (and it is hard to see how the tribunal can change course) suggests that the TNI is going to be absolved of responsibility for these acts of state terrorism. The not-guilty verdict against Lieutenant-Colonel Yayat Sudradjat during Christmas week seemed the last straw. Sudradjat was a key figure in what was a Kopassus conspiracy to prevent the loss of East Timor by sabotaging UN-sponsored moves for an act of self- determination, by means of violence and intimidation.

In the report compiled by the Indonesian Human Rights Commission investigation set up by President Wahid when he took office, Sudradjat was identified as one of the TNI officers who should be indicted.

In a report I compiled for the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor in 2001, he was named as a central actor in the destructive operation, which culminated in the loss of more than 1000 lives, the almost total destruction of East Timor's physical infrastructure and the virtual deportation of 250,000 people to Indonesia.

The essential case against the TNI officers is not that they failed to prevent violence, but the much more serious charge that they engineered this campaign of state terrorism. Its architects were Major-Generals Zakky Anwar Makarim and Sjafrei Sjamsuddin, who planned the setting up of the militia in mid-1998, when it had become clear to Kopassus that President Habibie's conciliatory offers could lead to the loss of a territory they had played a key role in acquiring for Indonesia. Without this TNI initiative the militia terror would, I believe, never have existed.

Sudradjat played a key role from that time onwards, essentially as the link between the generals and the militia commanders. According to militia witnesses, he provided money to pay militia leaders, supplies of drugs to "make the militia brave" and operational directions. In fact, there is evidence that on at least one occasion this officer exhorted militia commanders to intensify their violent activities, including against the church and its officials.

There is strong evidence that TNI officers played leading roles in the operations that led to serious atrocities, notably, Suai and Maliana, where dozens of Timorese were killed in what appeared to be revenge attacks for having humiliated the TNI. In these two cases senior Kopassus officers, one of whom has already been acquitted and the other not even charged, virtually directed operations resulting in brutal massacres.

There is no shortage of evidence against such officers, but the Indonesian prosecutors have laboured under the limitations of the tribunal's mandate, which covers the period between April and October 1999. In effect this precluded investigation into the setting up of the militia and those responsible for it.

The sentencing of the flamboyant Aitarak militia commander, Eurico Guterres, attracted widespread attention, but he was a mere tool. The big fish, the Kopassus commanders, have virtually been protected from prosecution. The only senior officers brought before it are the territorial commanders, officers like Major- General Adam Damiri, Brigadier-Generals Mahidin Simbolon and Tono Suratnam, and they were acquitted.

These three were, in fact, key operational figures, who played key command roles in the physical destruction of East Timor, and deportations to the Indonesian half of the island. This operation, which the TNI officers themselves described as a "scorched earth" operation, constituted a serious crime against humanity, but is yet to attract the attention of the tribunal.

It is now apparent that the tribunal Indonesia agreed to establish in response to international pressures is likely to absolve the Indonesian military of responsibility for the devastation of East Timor, and for the killing of over 1000 of its people. The main criticism to emerge from it is that some officers did not do enough to stop the violence, which defence lawyers ascribed to fighting between FALINTIL (Armed Forces of National Liberation of East Timor) and supporters of integration.

This was a lie, for FALINTIL troops confined themselves to agreed cantonments during the last period of Indonesian rule.

The tribunal has also been repeatedly told by defence lawyers that international intervention was largely responsible for the agitation that led to violence. It is as much in Australia's interests that those responsible for the Kopassus-inspired terrorism be exposed and brought to justice as it is bring to bring to justice the terrorists responsible for the Bali bombing.

Although there appears to be little enthusiasm in Canberra or Washington for it, an international tribunal should now be given serious consideration. To leave things as they are will leave a festering sore in relations between Indonesia and Australia, and diminish the legitimacy of a UN mission we chose to support.

As for the TNI officers responsible for these crimes, only Sudjarwo, one of the least responsible, has been sentenced. The more senior officers have been promoted. Major-General Adam Damiri later commanded TNI operations in Aceh, while his deputy, Mahidin Simbolon, now a major-general, became military commander in West Papua, where Kopassus officers are currently under investigation for an assassination.

As for Sudradjat, after Timor he was promoted colonel and was for a time deputy chief of Group IV of Kopassus, its notorious dirty-tricks department. Meanwhile, in East Timor many low-level militia are languishing in prison while those officers who recruited them continue their privileged existence in Jakarta and elsewhere.

[James Dunn is a former UN expert on crimes against humanity in East Timor.]

Indonesia

East Timor unrest has nothing to do with Indonesia: FM

Agence France Presse - January 8, 2003

Recent unrest in newly-independent East Timor which claimed five lives is a purely domestic problem and has nothing to do with former ruler Indonesia, Jakarta's foreign minister said.

"It's their internal problems; social-economic problems, high unemployment and the public's too great expectations for economic improvement," Hassan Wirayuda told reporters.

"East Timorese refugees fled to [Indonesian] West Timor and then returned to East Timor. If they create trouble, it's the action of East Timorese citizens," he said.

Wirayuda also said domestic political rivalries might be behind the unrest. "Alkatiri himself has said he believes there isn't any activity [in East Timor] supported or sponsored by Indonesia," the minister said, referring to East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

A gang armed with automatic rifles stormed into the villages of Tiarelelo and Lobano in East Timor's Atsabe district on Saturday night, killing three people including a village chief and his son and injuring several others.

It was the worst violence since the Indonesian military and their local militia proxies withdrew from East Timor in 1999.

Presidential chief of staff Agio Pereira has said the attackers were pro-Jakarta militiamen and those killed were former resistance leaders during Indonesian rule.

Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta has said that former pro- Jakarta militiamen were involved in riots which hit the capital Dili on December 4, although he did not suggest they were acting on Jakarta's orders.

Two people were killed and 25 injured in those riots which began as a student protest against police.

East Timor became independent on May 20 after 24 years of Indonesian occupation and 31 months of United Nations stewardship.

News & issues

Defense forces hunt down militiamen after weekend attack

Lusa - January 9, 2003

Dili -- The East Timor Defense Force (ETDF) is currently mounting counter-insurgency operations in an attempt to capture presumed anti-independence militiamen who raided two villages Saturday and killed several inhabitants, the ETDF's commander said Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Taur Matan Ruak told Lusa many of the troops searching in mountainous terrain southwest of Dili for the insurgents, who are believed to have "infiltrated" from West Timor in December, were former Falintil guerillas who fought against occupying Indonesian forces.

Earlier Thursday, security forces found the bodies of two men missing since last weekend's attack and officials said two armed former anti-independence militiamen had been captured in a separate action.

The discovery of the two bodies in a gully near the town of Atsabe, about 60 kms southwest of Dili, raised the number of casualties in the Saturday attacks to five dead and five wounded.

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri told Lusa that the two armed men captured Wednesday night in the mountainous area of Bazartete, not far from Atsabe, were "clearly ex-militias", part of a group that "infiltrated" East Timor from Indonesia on December 13.

While exonerating Jakarta of any responsibility, Alkatiri said it was clear the infiltrated band had crossed the border from West Timor "to cause instability and provoke disturbances". He stressed he believed Jakarta had "no interest" in promoting "such things", but that "retrograde people" of the former Indonesian regime "could hold another position".

The infiltrators, Alkatiri said, appeared to have formed a "tactical alliance" with a group of local discontents, known as Colimau 2000, who have operated in the region for months. While the local band, allegedly composed largely of unemployed former nationalist guerrillas, was bent on robbing and looting, the former pro-Jakarta militiamen aimed to "provoke instability", Alkatiri said. He personally had raised the potential security threat with the UN mission in Dili since reports of raids on villages in the southwest first surfaced in November, Alkatiri said.

Lack of action by UN forces, who are still responsible for the country's security, could be explained by the wave of rumors and instability recently lived in East Timor that might have led the UN to underestimate the potential threat, Alkatiri told Lusa.

East Timor police arrest two alleged ex-militiamen

Associated Press - January 9, 2003

Dili -- East Timor police said Thursday they arrested two former pro-Jakarta militiamen on weapons charges but declined to say if the men were linked to a recent surge in violence in the newly independent country.

In raids late Wednesday, East Timor's Deputy Police Chief Julio da Costa Hornay said they arrested two ex-members of the "Red and White Iron" militia, which is blamed for a 1999 church massacre. The two men had allegedly returned from self-imposed exile in Indonesia, da Costa Hornay said.

Nearly 2,000 civilians in East Timor were believed killed in 1999 and 250,000 forced to flee their homes when Indonesian troops and their militia proxies launched a campaign of terror before and after an independence referendum.

Authorities declined to say if the two men arrested Wednesday were among a group of pro-Indonesian militiamen blamed for killing three people Saturday in the villages of Tiarelelo and Laubonu -- located about 60 kilometers southwest of the capital.

Witnesses said the same group allegedly attacked the area on January 2, kidnapping at least six villagers. One of the villagers escaped and two were found dead Thursday, police said.

The killings -- the first linked to pro-Jakarta militias since independence in May -- prompted East Timor police and UN peacekeepers to beef up patrols in the area. President Xanana Gusmao and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri flew to the area Sunday to meet with residents.

East Timor gained full independence after a period of transitional rule by the UN following Indonesia's brutal 24-year occupation. Militia leaders have been put on trial in Indonesia and East Timor, and many pro-Jakarta militiamen remain in West Timor.

Last month, East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta suggested that pro-Jakarta militiamen were behind a one-day riot that left two dead and dozens of buildings destroyed in Dili. Among the buildings burnt down was the residence of Alkatiri.

On Sunday, Alkatiri suggested militias have became active in the country, though he stopped short of blaming them for the attack on the two villages.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda dismissed suggestions that Indonesians were behind the recent violence, saying that East Timor should resolve its own domestic problems.

Militia blamed for East Timor murders

Australian Financial Review - January 7, 2002

Tim Dodd, Jakarta -- Three East Timorese men killed in an armed raid on their villages on Saturday night were former independence activists. Senior East Timorese officials believe that the attackers were once linked to the pro-Indonesian militia.

Yesterday, the chief of staff to East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao, Ajio Pereira, said it "appeared that the attack was by individuals connected to militia groups and pro-Indonesia groups".

Mr Pereira, who visited the two villages, Tiarelelo and Laubono, with Mr Gusmao and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, said the three men killed were former local leaders of the now disbanded independence group CNRT which led East Timor's push for freedom from Indonesia in 1999.

Separately, a spokeswoman for East Timor Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta said yesterday that eyewitnesses to the attack said they recognised five of the gunmen as former militia members.

Five villagers were also injured in the attack by men armed with guns. Mr Pereira said villagers put the number of attackers at anywhere between 10 and 40. "The population was clearly distressed," he said.

If former militia members did carry out the raid, it would be the first serious incident attributable to militia groups in East Timor for nearly three years since the Australian-led United Nations peacekeeping force restored security after the independence vote in 1999.

However, rather than indicating any new infiltration by Indonesian-based militia from West Timor, the attacks on Saturday night may be further proof of growing home-based security problems in East Timor, where many former militia members have reintegrated into their communities.

In a riot last month, several buildings were razed in the capital, Dili, including Mr Alkatiri's house. Mr Ramos Horta blamed the riot on pro-Indonesian militia, although the evidence is not clear.

Even the continuing presence of the UN peacekeeping force and UN police is not enough to ensure security in the fledgling country.

Leaders fly to border town after likely militia raid

Sydney Morning Herald - January 7, 2003

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin -- United Nations officials and East Timorese government leaders are re-assessing security after a weekend border attack with all the hallmarks of a militia incursion from West Timor.

Three people died and five were hurt when masked raiders with automatic weapons attacked the hamlets of Tirlelo and Laubanu, near Atsabe, 25 kilometres from the Indonesian border. Several others were reported missing in the attack, which happened late Saturday and early Sunday.

The attackers could be people still living in the bush who have come down to steal, but most evidence points to an infiltration from the other side of the border, said a senior source from the East Timor Defence Force, the country's new national army.

He said a villager had identified five Atsabe men who formerly served with the Indonesian secret services SGI unit.

It is the first such attack in the border region for more than a year, and was notable for the use of automatic weapons. Bullet casings at the site indicated that SKS and G3 automatic assault rifles were used, as well as old Mauser rifles. The latter two weapons could come from caches buried since Portuguese times, but the Soviet-manufactured SKS guns are Indonesian-issue.

An emergency meeting of UN officials and East Timorese leaders was held early on Sunday after news of the attack reached Dili.

President Xanana Gusmao, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and East Timorese defence commander Brigadier Taur Matan Ruak then flew by helicopter to the area with UN officials, to interview villagers and assess the situation at first-hand.

Atsabe is a key border town in the mountains south-west of Dili but was without effective security when the attacks occurred. Five East Timorese policemen were on duty, each armed with a pistol.

UN peacekeepers withdrew from the area last year. The nearest now are based at Liquica on the north coast, at least two hours away by road.

Troubled Timor villages to get troops' protection

Straits Times - January 7, 2003

Dili -- East Timor's defence force is to send 180 soldiers to a district where attackers killed four villagers over the weekend, a defence source said yesterday.

A gang armed with automatic rifles stormed into the villages of Tiarelelo and Lobano in Atsabe district on Saturday night, killing three people including a village chief and injuring several others. A fourth victim died on Sunday of his injuries.

The attack was the worst since Indonesia's military and their pro-Jakarta militia proxies withdrew from East Timor after the 1999 referendum. "We will soon dispatch personnel to Atsabe," said East Timor Defence Force chief Taur Matan Ruak, adding that they would be supported by United Nations peacekeeping troops.

He did not say how many soldiers would be sent. But a source in the force said 180 troops would be dispatched.

Witnesses, who believed the attackers were pro-Indonesian militiamen who wreaked havoc on the territory after it voted for independence, said some of them wore ninja-style masks.

One of the witnesses, Flaviano, identified one of the attackers who did not wear a mask as a pro-Indonesian militiaman called Manuel.

Brigadier-General Matan Ruak said his own force was not equipped with SKS and G3 rifles, which the attackers were believed to have used.

"We used to have them [rifles] during the resistance but they were all handed over. Only militias have them." Brig-Gen Matan Ruak, President Xanana Gusmao and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri visited the villages on Sunday to meet residents and heard pleas for protection.

Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta has said that former pro- Jakarta militiamen were involved in riots which hit the capital Dili on December 4, although he did not suggest they were acting on Jakarta's orders.

Armed gang kills four East Timor villagers

Associated Press - January 6, 2003

Dili -- Screaming "We are coming back for you", a gang armed with automatic rifles raided two villages in newly independent East Timor, killing four people and injuring eight, witnesses said yesterday.

The fighting late on Saturday and early yesterday in the villages of Tiarelelo and Laubonu -- located about 60 km south-west of the capital Dili -- prompted President Xanana Gusmao and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri to fly there yesterday afternoon to meet residents.

Witnesses said they believed the 11 assailants belonged to pro- Indonesia militias, which wrought devastation in East Timor when the half island voted for independence in a 1999 referendum.

If their assertion proves true, the attack would be the most serious of its kind by militiamen since the country became independent last May.

East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta last month suggested that pro-Jakarta militiamen were behind a one-day riot that left two dead and dozens of buildings destroyed in Dili. Among the buildings burnt down was the home of Mr Alkatiri.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister suggested militias had become active in the country, though he stopped short of blaming them for the attack on the two villages.

"I believe that pro-Indonesia militias are still active," he said. "They are not trying to invade the country like in 1975 but they are trying to destabilise it."

Villagers said they had no doubt that the 11 men were pro-Jakarta militiamen. They said the men -- all armed with automatic rifles -- stormed into Tiarelelo, shooting indiscriminately and robbing villagers of money and food. A 17-year-old man was killed and three children were injured, witnesses said.

The gang then moved to the nearby village of Laubonu, where they killed the village head and his son, witnesses said. A third, unidentified villager was also killed, they said.

Villagers told Mr Gusmao that the gang had been active since November in the area. They said the same gang robbed a nearby village and kidnapped six people from another village. Only one of the six has been released.

"It is sad that so many people were killed," Mr Gusmao said. "But the killings will also serve to wake up the United Nations. Until now, the United Nations hasn't trusted the information that has come from the people. We have to stop these problems and bring these people to justice."

International relations

Australian and Timorese ministers discuss security

Radio Australia - January 10, 2003

Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer has meet his East Timorese counterpart, Jose Ramos Horta, to discuss recent unrest in the developing nation.

Four people were killed recently when a gang armed with automatic rifles stormed villages in East Timor. It was the worst violence in the country since 1999.

Mr Ramos Horta says he understands the travel warning issued by Australian authorities, but says he believes Australians in the country are safe.

He says relations between the two nations remain strong, and says East Timor will appoint an ambassador to Canberra soon.

"So far we have not appointed an ambassador, but it has only to do with the fact that it is far too important and we don't have too many choices of effective spokesperson that we can send to Australia," Mr Ramos Horta says.