• Gurkhas rescue 4,000 from militia
• 13 bodies found in mass grave
• Disease rampant in Timor camps
• Militia vow to avenge Australian border raids
• Nine bodies found in burnt-out pickup truck
• Falintil in control of areas TNI abandoned
• Awesome destruction 'like carpet bombing'
• Militia ordered to change tactics
• Bishop says 9 church workers killed
• Discarded evidence witness to atrocities
• Timorese exiles go into hiding after threats
• Prabowo's killers stalking activists
• UN Press Conference by Xanana, Horta

• Indonesia moves up presidential vote
• Parties agree on MPR session
• Back-room manoeuvres in Jakarta

• Clashes claim at least 217 lives in Maluku

• Irian Jaya clashes leave 14 dead
• Activists calls for UN inquiry into Aceh
• Call for civil service strike in Aceh

• Moore rules out independent crimes probe
• UN gets tough on probe into rights abuses

• Injured protesters flee from hospital in fear
• Anti-Australian protests hit Indonesian cities
• Downer on violence in Indonesia
• Australian minister praises Habibie
• Australian troops torture militias: Report
• Jakarta press accuses Australia of atrocities
• Drug abuse, a catastrophe in the making

• Blood on their hands

Indonesia protests flare on eve of assembly

Claudia Gazzini, Jakarta -- Protests broke out across Indonesia on Thursday over grievances ranging from the UN-backed intervention in East Timor to the pace of democratic reform.

Students threw three molotov cocktails and some rocks at the Australian Embassy in protest against Camberra's involvement in East Timor. One molotov cocktail entered the grounds of the building. A window of an embassy security post was also broken.

The protests flared as US Defence Secretary William Cohen held talks with officials in Jakarta and came a day before the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) convenes. The MPR is to elect a new president within a few weeks.

At least 2,000 protesters took to the streets in several parts of the capital and at least three major regional cities.

About 500 students were involved at the Australian embassy protest, burning Australian flags and set fire to rubbish outside.

They were protesting Canberra's leadership of the UN force in East Timor, where thousands of people are believed to have been killed since the former Portuguese colony voted overwhelmingly on August 30 for independence from Indonesia.

"Australia has to apologise to Indonesia," read one banner. Another called Indonesia's southern neighbour "neo-imperialist".

Cohen talks with Habibie, Wiranto

About 50 protesters also rallied at the US embassy as Cohen met President B.J. Habibie and military chief General Wiranto.

Wearing uniforms and white veils, some 500 Moslem students chanted prayers from the Koran and demanded effective reforms outside a Jakarta hotel where members of the new parliament are staying, calling this "the will of the Indonesian people". In the Sumatran city of Medan, about 500 students demanded the government allow neighbouring Aceh province a referendum on its future status like the East Timor ballot. "In order to end the troubles of Aceh, the government has to allow a referendum for the people of Aceh," a student said.

Protests also broke out in Pontianak on Borneo island as the local parliament for West Kalimantan province was being sworn in.

Anger directed at Australia

In the far eastern Moluccas, some 150 students demanded that Australians leave the province's north, including missionaries, mine workers and tourists, the official Antara news agency said.

In recent weeks, Australian flags have been burnt, several Australian firms have evacuated their staff and Canberra's diplomatic presence has been reduced in parts of Indonesia.

Australia's embassy grounds in Jakarta also have been broken into during past protests and the building has been shot at.

Two days of clashes last week between security forces and students protesting against a new internal security bill left at least seven people dead. One person also was killed this week in a protest against the security law in southern Sumatra.

The law was rushed through the outgoing parliament last week, but the government bowed to the protests and suspended its implementation. Students have vowed to hold more protests until the law is revoked.

Opposition figure Megawati Sukarnoputri called on students to stop protesting and put their faith in the MPR, which on Thursday held a rehearsal for Friday's opening ceremony. The body consists mainly of MPs elected in June.

University student shot dead in Lampung

Bandar Lampung -- The mourning of Yap Yun Hap who died of gunshot wounds had hardly lifted from the Indonesia University campus grounds, when news broke through that another student, M. Yusuf Rizal (23), has fallen victim at the Bandar Lampung University of Lampung on Tuesday (28/9). The victim participating in a demonstration against the Emergency Situations Draft, and a student at the Social Sciences Faculty of the University, was shot in the neck.

The tragic incident occurred during a chase of security troops who went after the students and started shooting following riots and clashes on the grounds of the Kedaton Military Rayon Commando Headquarters.

The military headquarters are located right opposite the Bandar Lampung University. More students were injured on the campus grounds. At least 31 students were injured, 11 are still in intensive care at the Abdoel Moeloek Hospital and at the Advent Hospital of Bandar Lampung. Nine security men were also injured in the melee.

"I cannot accept the fact that my child has sacrificed his life for nothing. He is not a criminal. The students took to the streets to voice the aspirations of the people and in a token of solidarity for their fallen friend in Jakarta. I, therefore, appeal to the military authorities and the police, to solve this case once and for all," Mahmud (60), Rizal's father said.

This pensioned teacher refused to accept the death of his son meekly.

The eleven injured students in hospital are, Remi Citra (20), student of the same university (UBL), Saidatul Fitria (21) FKIP Unila, Mujamil (22) Fisip Unila, and Riki Rusdi (22) Fisip UBL who is under treatment of the Advent Hospital. Seven other students in hospital care are, Ifan (20) UBL student, a. Rozak (22) Fisip Unila, Agung Prasetyo (20) UBL, Dika Rinaldi (20) UBL Accountancy student, Erlan (24) UBL, Fitriansyah (21) UBL, and M. Soleh Wahyudi (23) UBL student.

The victims are not in the best of conditions because of headwounds, injuries on hands and the stomach. Saidatul Fitri, a photographer of the Unila Teknokra campus paper was still unconscious yesterday evening. Oblivious of the infuse equipment and other life supporting machine, she lies prone in a hospital bed because a bullet had struck her forehead.

The action

Since 9.30am, a mixture of hundreds students from the Bandar Lampung University, Unila and other students, activists of the Democratic People Party (PRD) had assembled on the road in front of the UBL campus in protest against the Emergency Situations Draft. The demonstration was also hedl in a token of solidarity for the death of Yap Yun Hap.

Shouting slogans, the demonstrating crowd filled the surroundings of Jalan ZA Pagaralam, Kedaton, some 2,5 kilometers from the city center of Bandar Lampung. Then, for some unknown reason, people were running and entered the yard of the military headquarters in front of the UBL campus. The crowd demanded of the military to fly the flag half mast as a mark of mourning for their friend, Yun Hap in Jakarta. Eight military men looked on helplessly and the crowd lowered the Red White flag to half mast.

After that the crowd went out of hand. In a bout of emotional uprising, they took down the name board of the Military Rayon Commando and started to stone the military headquarters. Glass panes up front of the premises provided a scene of total destruction. A combined unit of security personnel, like a unit of Anti-Riot District Police from Lampung, a unit of the Mobile Brigade, and military men of the 043 Military Resort Commando, Black Eagle, which had since long been alerted, were trying to hold back the advancing mob. Police Chief Bandar Lampung Resort, Lt. colonel TMB Siahaan, who led the counter operation appealed to the mob not to damage anything.

But, the answer was a hail of stones, broken tiles, and other hard objects. Warning shots in the air and tear gas could not hold the mob back. Full clashes could not be avoided as hundreds of security men stood ready to fight the mob around 60 meters away.

Both groups were involved in a stone throwing session. The troops crawled in an advancing stance and rained bullets on the angry mob in front of them. People fled for safety in all directions, most of them tried to find refuge on UBL campus grounds. But, the chase went on. Casualties could no longer be avoided on both sides. A number of students fell to the ground inside the university complex when they got hit by bullets. One of the students was Rizal who was fataly hit in the neck.

The Commander of 043 Military Resort Commando Black Eagle, Colonel Mudjiono, said after the clashes that the demonstration was the ultimate of brutality. It was there for everyone to see, they were not demonstrating, but, they were out on a destruction and assault mission of government buildings and government officials.

"This is not a genuine student action," said Mudjiono.

Ongoing action

In spite of the sacrifices and deferment of the Emergency Situation Draft by government, students in Medan, Jakarta and Semarang, do not seem to stop their actions against the Emergency Draft. They demanded a total withdrawal of the draft.

In Medan students of Sisimangaraja University XII were staging a demo in front of the campus. Three long college desks were set up on the road, old tyres were set ablaze which created a traffic disturbance in no time.

In Semarang, a PRD mob staged an action on foot which moved towards Parliament House and the District Police Headquarters of Central Java. The crowd demanded responsibility from Chief Commander General Wiranto and President Habibie for the shootings and violence suffered by anti-Emergency Law students and the public.

In Jakarta, various student and public groups were holding a flower ritual at the beginning of Jalan Garnison, next to Atma Jaya University campus. About thousand UI students arrived from the university's campus in Depok to join the flower tribute after participating in a walk along the Dr. Satrio Artery Road in the neighborhood of the Casablanca area.

Other than students, North Sumatra farmers who joined the People Movement for Agricultural Reformation (Gerag) joined demonstrations in respect of the Semanggi Tragedy II victim. Attired in farmer outfits, longsleeves, and handwoven cloth, they walked from down from the Casablanca area. After the flower tribute at the site of the incident, prayers were said for the victim and the student cause.

After the flower ceremony, UI students staged an action at the end of Jalan Garnison. There went on shouting slogans and sang anti-military songs.

"We don't just demand withdrawal of the Emergency Draft, but we want politics free from military elements," one of the demonstrators said.

One dead in fresh student protest

Jakarta -- Protests against a new state security bill in Indonesia claimed another life Tuesday when security forces shot dead a student in clashes in the Sumatra island city of Bandar Lampung, hospitals and reports said. At least 27 others were injured in the protest, which followed the deaths of at least seven people, one a student, in similar protests in Jakarta last week.

Tuesday's victim was shot dead in front of the Bandar Lampung University, where the clash broke out after security officials attempted to disperse hundreds of students trying to march to the local military headquarters, said Alira of the Bandar Lampung Legal Aid Institute.

Alira could not give further details saying she had yet to get a full report from the members of the institute's team gathering data on the incident.

But she said the students had started to march from Lampung University and had passed the Bandar Lampung University where they were joined by hundreds more students, when the clash took place.

"A male student was admitted here this morning. He was already dead on arrival," an employee of the emergency ward of the Abdul Muluk hospital in Bandar Lampung said by telephone. He could not give further details but said 11 other students were also brought to the hospital with various injuries.

Hospitals in Bandar Lampung contacted by telephone said at least 27 people were injured and rushed to the hospitals, including one in critical condition with a fractured skull and at least five with gunshot wounds.

The state Antara news agency identified the dead student as Muhamad Yusuf Rizal, 22, a student of the faculty of social and political sciences at Lampung University.

Rizal was the second student to die in protests against the security bill which was passed by the parliament last Thursday.

Two days of massive demonstrations against the bill in Jakarta left seven people dead, including a police officer, and a student who was shot by soldiers late Friday. More than 100 others were injured in running clashes in the capital.

President B.J. Habibie, citing the bloodshed, suspended his ratification of the bill until further notice. Antara said the Bandar Lampung clash broke out when a thick cordon of police and soldiers barred the way for the student march at Bandar Lampung university.

The students protestors, who had intended to march to the Lampung military command, were also demanding the military account for the death of the student in Jakarta.

A local journalist said the students were negotiating their passage with officers there when a shot was fired at close range and killed Rizal.

In the ensuing panic, students began to throw stones or anything they could find, while the security forces fired more shots and teargas. The clash, which broke out close to noon only subsided after dusk, the journalist said.

Antara quoted Lampung military spokesman Captain Muhammad Sufi as saying at least for four security personnel were injured in the clash and were rushed to the military hospital. Sufi denied there were bodies of other dead students at the military hospital.

Alira said some students had reported three deaths, while a city telephone operator said he had heard several telephone conversation that spoke of five killed. But none of the other deaths could be immediately confirmed, Alira said.

Despite calls by students and rights activists calling on the government to scrap the state security bill, Habibie has said the delay in ratification is only to allow time for the public to study its merits over a 1959 law it is to replace.

Critics of the security bill say it would give a military accused of mass human-rights violations across Indonesia, including in East Timor, sweeping powers.

PRD member shot dead in Lampung

[The following is a compilation of several reports sent to ASIET (Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor) by the Central Leadership Committee of the People's Democratic Party (KPP-PRD) in Jakarta.]

Today, a number of organisations in Lampung, South Sumatra, including the Lampung University Student Council (DMUL), the People's Democratic Party (PRD), KMPPL and the Lampung Peasants Council, held an action in front of the Kedaton Military District Command (Kodim). They demanded the withdrawal of the new Emergency Security Bill and the dual function of the armed forces and that armed forces chief General Wiranto be tried in an international court.

The demonstration was met with repression by the military and as a result, a clash occurred at 11.23am with shooting continuing until 12.15pm. At least two students were killed and scores seriously wounded.

One of the two who died was Jusuf Rizal, an DMUL activists and a member of the PRD. The other victim has not yet been identified.

At 12.23pm, the Bandar Lampung University was attacked by troops from the Bandar Lampung Kedaton Sub-district Military Command (Koramil). A number of students were shot.

At 2pm, troops again attacked the campus shooting indiscriminately forcing thousand of students to flee. The number of victims is expected to increase significantly. The troops also entered lecture theaters and destroyed what they found inside.

At 4.30 troops and police reentered the campus, chasing and beating people, shooting and destroying a number of buildings (Building C and F and the university Rector's building). Ten motor vehicles were also destroyed.

As of 5pm, the number of victims had reached 40:

• Nine shot with live ammunition or rubber bullets
• One dead
• 29 suffering injuries as a result of being beaten
• 11 being treated at the Abdul Meoloek hospital, two in a critical condition and in a coma.
• 13 are being treated at th Advent hospital
• 11 have been arrested by the Bandar Lampung police
• 5 were abducted in a Red Kijang vehicle number plate B 700 XX. Their whereabouts are unknown.

1. Dedi Sukasma (22), UBL student, fractured scull, currently being treated at the Abdul Meoloek pubic hospital.
2. Yusuf Rizal (23), Unila student and PRD member, shot in the neck, deceased.
3. Ifan (22), from West Java, suffered head wounds and currently being treated at the Abdul Meoloek public hospital.
4. Budi Wahyudi (22), UBL student, suffered head wounds and currently being treated at the Abdoel Moeloek public hospital.
5. A. Rozak (22), Unila student, suffered head wounds and currentlybeing treated at the Abdul Meoloek public hospital.
6. Agung Prasetyo (20), UBL student, shot in the thigh and currently being treated at the Abdul Meoloek public hospital.
7. Dika Rinaldi (24), UBL student, shot in the back and currently being treated at the Abdul Meoloek public hospital.
8. Erlan (24), UBL student, suffered head wounds and currently being treated at the Abdul Meoloek public hospital.
9. Fitriansah (25), UBL student, shot in the left shoulder and currently being treated at the Abdul Meoloek public hospital.
10. Supardi, UBL security guard, gun shot wounds and currently being treated at the Abdul Meoloek public hospital.
11. Zaidatul Fikri (23), Unila photographer, gun shot wounds, is in a critical condition and currently being treated at the Abdul Meoloek public hospital.
12. Retno Supriadi (24), Unila student, shot in the stomach, is in a critical condition and currently being treated at the Abdul Meoloek public hospital.

UBL: Bandar Lampung University, Unila = Lampung University

The UBL campus is located in front of Kodim Kedaton, the security forces involved in the shootings were from Kodim and a Korem unit called the "Black Garuda" (Garuda Hitam).

[Translated by James Balowski]

Hundreds of students in anti-military protest

Jakarta -- Some 1,000 Indonesian students returned to the streets here Wednesday in a peaceful protest against military violence.

The protesters, mostly from the University of Indonesia, massed at a busy roundabout in the capital's main thoroughfare, chanting slogans and brandishing signs against what they called the military's meddling in all aspects of life.

"Violence is not the solution," read a large banner. Abdul Hakim, a student from the University of Indonesia, said.

Tension rose as dozens of nationalist protesters attempted to join the student crowd. But the students rejected their involvement.

Two days of massive demonstrations against a controversial state security bill in Jakarta last week left seven people dead, including a police officer, and a student who was shot by soldiers.

More than 100 others were injured in running clashes in the capital as soon as the bill was endorsed by the parliament. President B.J. Habibie, citing the bloodshed, suspended his ratification of the bill until further notice.

Present among the student crowd Wednesday were prominent Muslim leader and presidential hopeful Abdurrahman Wahid and reformist politician Amien Rais, chairman of the National Mandate Party.

"I'm here because this protest is against violence," Wahid said to cheers of the protesters. But he warned the students against taking their protest to parliament. "I warn those people who want to take over the parliament through violence. Beware," he added.

Rais, who spearheaded a reform movement that helped topple former president Suharto last year, called on the students to continue their struggle. "Never quit. Listen to your conscience," he said.

The parliament building has become a symbol of Indonesian students' resistance against the goverment. A protest against the bill in the Lampung province in southern Sumatra on Tuesday also claimed the life of a student.
 

East Timor

Gurkhas rescue 4,000 from militia

Agencies in Dili, Los Palos and Jakarta -- British Gurkha soldiers yesterday arrested two members of a group of East Timorese militiamen who were holding more than 4,000 people in the eastern port of Com, military sources said.

The militiamen appeared to be preparing to move the 4,000 people out of the territory, the sources said.

The Gurkhas, part of the Australian-led International Force for East Timor (Interfet), arrived in the eastern town of Los Palos earlier in the day. They were acting on information received on the ground, the sources said.

Thousands are thought to have been killed by pro-Jakarta forces since East Timor overwhelmingly voted for independence in a UN-organised August 30 referendum.

Hundreds of thousands have left the territory, many of them forcibly removed by militiamen backed by elements of the Indonesian military.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, to set up a commission of inquiry into East Timor and to report to him by December 31.

Mr Annan said the international inquiry would include "adequate representation of Asian experts" and work in co- operation with the Indonesian national commission on human rights. Jakarta has so far rejected such a probe.

Armed forces chief General Wiranto yesterday admitted military transport was used to move most of the 250,000 refugees now in West Timor, but only because there was no other transport available.

"This does not mean that we encouraged [their move] or engineered it," General Wiranto said after accompanying President Bacharuddin Habibie in talks with visiting US Defence Secretary William Cohen.

General Wiranto said Mr Cohen had expressed hopes that when security had returned to East Timor, Indonesia would assist in returning the refugees who wanted to go home. The general said: "When the time is right, the military will be ready to help return them."

Mr Cohen said the military had aided and abetted violence in East Timor and urged it to disarm anti-independence militias and investigate and punish those guilty of "improper behaviour".

He said General Wiranto had promised to investigate the military's role and act to disarm militias. "I made it clear that the US will not consider restoring normal military to military contacts until the TNI [Indonesian armed forces] reforms its ways," he said.

In New York, Foreign Minister Ali Alatas rejected US charges that the Indonesian military was failing to protect East Timorese refugees in West Timor and elsewhere in Indonesia, but invited Washington to send a fact-finding team to the region.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright agreed to the proposal. But she failed to persuade Jakarta to co-operate with a UN investigation into rights abuses in East Timor.

The peacekeepers have had to release a man believed to be a militia commander because Interfet's mandate will not allow it to hold him for more than 72 hours.

Interfet forces said yesterday it had recovered nine bodies in the eastern part of the territory at the weekend.

The recovery of the bodies from Lautem, 175km east of Dili, followed the discovery on Wednesday of nine other mutilated corpses in a truck near Dili airport.

13 bodies found in mass grave

Dili -- The bodies of 13 people, many of them showing traces of violence, have been found in a mass grave near Dili, a spokesman for the United Nations said on Saturday.

The bodies were found at Tibar, around 20 kilometres west of the East Timorese capital. A grave containing the corpses of two men, one with his throat cut the other killd by a bullet in the head, had previously been found at the site, spokesman David Wimhurst said.

AFP journalists on Saturday found another three bodies near a house in Dili. One had been half devoured by animals, another had been dumped in a ditch and the third was covered in loose stones.

The latest discoveries follow the killing last weekend of nine people, including two nuns, in eastern East Timor and the discovery in Dili on Tuesday of the charred and mutilated remains of at least nine people.

The victims are believed to have been killed by members of armed militias who went on a violent rampage after the territory voted on August 30 for independence.

The militias, who want East Timor to remain part of Indonesia, were backed by some members of the Indonesian army.

The United Nations has begun an inquiry into the atrocities. Members of an investigative team are due to arrive here early next week.

The UN inquiry is to produce findings by the year end. These could lead to the establishment of an international tribunal to judge those accused of carrying out or organising the terror.

Disease rampant in Timor camps

Dafna Linzer, Kupang, -- In the ramshackle Tuapukan camp, home to 10,000 refugees from East Timor's chaos, Indonesia's red-and- white flag flies proudly above unfinished roofs of dried palm fronds and straw.

The show of support for Jakarta is expected in a camp that is home to families of pro-Indonesia militias and low-ranking Indonesian troops. What is surprising are the horrendous, overcrowded conditions that even they are forced to tolerate.

Some 230,000 East Timorese, most believed to be independence supporters intimidated by rampaging militias, are living in scattered encampments across West Timor. Many say they were forcibly taken after a landslide vote to separate from Indonesia.

Access to their camps is severely limited, even for international air workers trying to help them. Outbreaks of malaria and measles are on the rise, and health officials fear the situation will only worsen with the onset of the monsoon season next month.

In Tuapukan, hundreds of refugees squat under leaves or plastic tarps hastily thrown up along a traffic-clogged dirt road. Cooking tables and open latrines are side by side. There is no water. Black exhaust from passing trucks hangs in the air.

Dr. Hendra Wajaya, who works inside the camps, estimated Saturday that up to half the children in Tuapukan are suffering from diarrhea, which already has proved fatal there. Tuberculosis is another concern.

Local health officials say a lack of sanitation is speeding the spread of disease through Tuapukan, located nine miles east of Kupang, the West Timor capital. One nurse expressed concern for 10 newborns, who were delivered healthy but are now at serious risk of infection.

Dr. Mappi Gaspar, field director of Doctors Without Borders, said her staff members had gained access to several camps and were trying to improve sanitation conditions.

Indonesian troops and militia rule this section of countryside where four camps, home to roughly 40,000 people, run one after another for miles outside the city.

Scattered blue or orange tents pepper a browned landscape thirsty for water, but most people live under crude huts.

It was unclear whether those in Tuapukan came to West Timor freely or were forced. Indonesian officials in Kupang said Saturday that safety concerns made it impossible for foreigners to enter the camp. Refugees in other camps said they were told three weeks ago to board Indonesian military planes for West Timor or be killed.

In Asumta camp, worn out mothers breast-fed their babies, shoeless children stared at the brown earth and swarms of black flies buzzed in the air.

A few men quietly inquired into the whereabouts of the militia, telling aid workers stories of torture back in East Timor.

Fermina Sanchez hugged her 6-month-old son close to her chest as she stood on the steps of a church complex where she is staying. "My husband stayed behind in Dili," she said. Looking downward at her five other children gathering around her skirt, she added, "We need to go home."

Militia vow to avenge Australian border raids

Mark Dodd, Dili -- Australian soldiers have taken control of two towns in militia heartland along East Timor's volatile border with Indonesian West Timor, in their biggest operation since landing in the territory 12 days ago.

Yesterday's raids brought an immediate threat from militia commander Joao da Silva Tavares to lead 12,000 of his fighters back into East Timor on Monday to occupy six western districts -- including areas secured yesterday by the Australian troops.

Dubbed Operation Lavarack, the Australians' land, sea and air assault along the western border began shortly after 6am. It involved soldiers from the second battalion Royal Australian Regiment, who were landed by Australian Army Blackhawk helicopters, RAN landing craft and supported by light armoured vehicles.

Mr da Silva Tavares responded: "The Interfet forces do not have the right to drive me from the land of my birth. If Interfet dares to attack me, we will immediately wipe them out." However, Interfet headquarters spokesman Colonel Mark Kelly said the operation had met no resistance so far and by midday yesterday there had been no sightings of pro-Jakarta militia.

"There have been reports of a lot of militia activity in all the western regions," Colonel Kelly said. "This is our first big move into those areas. The battalions deploying as part of Operation Lavarack will be there for weeks. Obviously our intent is to provide security to the people of East Timor."

More than 250 soldiers have been landed out of a total force of 1,000 troops in the operation. They have secured Balibo and occupied the border town of Batugade, about 100 kilometres west of Dili.

Colonel Kelly said his soldiers were under strict orders not to cross the border into Indonesian West Timor, an ill-defined frontier that lies only metres from the crumbling ruins of the old seafront Portuguese fort at Batugade.

Nervous Indonesian Army commanders had earlier warned of possible reprisals if troops crossed into West Timor. The commander of the Australian force, Major-General Peter Cosgrove, has stressed repeatedly his troops will confine military operations to East Timor. Mr da Silva Tavares's threat of counter-raids is believed to involve pro-Indonesia militia now based at Atambua, just over the border in West Timor. The town is home to tens of thousands of refugees, and the militia have been accused of intimidation and hampering efforts to get aid to them.

The latest operation follows criticism by some aid groups and journalists that Interfet troops were proceeding too cautiously in fanning out into East Timor's rural areas. However, General Cosgrove has been quick to deny the charge. A statement by Interfet headquarters yesterday said the aim of Operation Lavarack was to restore peace and security in the western areas of East Timor to support humanitarian operations. On Thursday, the British Gurkhas became the first Interfet soldiers to fire shots -- to dispel a group of militia holding about 2,000 unarmed civilians hostage in far eastern Com.

Exiled resistance leaders Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos-Horta have told The Washington Post they plan to notify Indonesian authorities of their intention to return to East Timor on October 15.

Nine bodies found in burnt-out pickup truck

Dili -- The mutilated and charred remains of at least nine people were discovered in a burnt- out pickup truck on the outskirts of Dili Wednesday, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

The truck, which was found surrounded by clapped out buses in a scrapyard two kilometres west of the city, contained the skulls and rib cages of nine bodies which appeared to have suffered severe machete wounds.

One of the sets of remains appeared to be that of a child. The top of another skull had been sliced off: the mouth was wide open as if the victim had died screaming in agony. The rib cage of one of the other sets of remains had been sliced open.

Falintil in control of areas TNI abandoned

Waimori -- Pro-independence guerillas said yesterday they had seized control of most of the eastern part of East Timor after clashes with retreating militia and Indonesian soldiers.

The commander of the Falintil resistance on the ground in East Timor, Taur Matan Ruak, said his fighters had taken control of areas abandoned by the Indonesian military which had yet to be occupied by international peacekeepers.

Speaking from his mountain headquarters, Commander Ruak said guerillas were still fighting militia and soldiers for control of an area around the southern coastal town of Betano.

Commander Ruak made it clear the guerillas were unlikely to disarm. "We have learned over 24 years that we can never trust the Indonesian military," he said. A decision to disarm is seen as extremely unlikely before Xanana Gusmao, the leader of the guerillas and likely leader of an independent East Timor, returns.

Mr Gusmao, who has called for reconciliation with Indonesia, is seen as the only man with the authority to prevent the guerillas going on a killing spree to avenge the orgy of militia-led violence that followed the territory's August 30 vote for independence. "Xanana should be here as soon as possible -- we need him," Falintil officer Falur Rate Laek said.

Falintil set up its semi-permanent base in a river valley in the Waimori region, southeast of Dili, just before the UN- organised ballot.

More than 3,000 refugees are also sheltering there, forced into the mountains by militia violence. A further 10,000 huddle in the surrounding hills.

The guerillas remained in their mountain camps in the weeks leading up to and after the independence vote. Now they are cautiously moving back into towns and villages left devastated by departing Indonesian soldiers.

"There's very few of us and it's a very large area but we've sent people to where TNI [Indonesian army] have left to make sure the population is secure," Commander Ruak said. Western towns such as Maliana, Bobonaro and Suai remain in the hands of militia.

Awesome destruction 'like carpet bombing'

Mark Dodd, Dili -- When paramilitary toughs supported by Indonesia's discredited military force in East Timor finally set down their cans of petrol and matches, hundreds of innocent people had been killed, tens of thousands made homeless and whole towns and villages razed.

Of a pre-ballot population estimated at 880,000 about 200,000 people are now living in squalor in Indonesian West Timor where threats, intimidation and sudden, violent death at the hands of the militia is a daily hazard.

A United Nations helicopter survey last week of the damage inflicted across this half-island territory during a fortnight of unchecked militia attacks is mind-boggling in its scope.

A delegation from the European Union on an assessment mission in East Timor said on Tuesday the destruction was comparable to damage in the Balkans.

About 70 per cent of Dili, East Timor's capital, lies in ruins and infrastructure has all but collapsed. There is no mains water, telephone lines are down, electricity operates in only a few areas and sanitation and public health services are non- existent. Many of the city's 174,000 population are now returning, including refugees from other regional centres.

The enclave town of Oecussi, lying on the north coast of Indonesian West Timor, is 90 per cent destroyed. The UN spokesman Mr David Wimhurst likened the damage to World War II carpet bombing.

A foreign reporter on the helicopter survey said there was no sign of life except for a small group of people standing on a barren ridge line on the town's outskirts. The pilot reported one other unidentified person signalling with a mirror.

Baucau, East Timor's second-biggest city with a pre-ballot population of 96,800 escaped largely intact. However, utilities such as communications, power and water are all out of order. The main clinic, post office and telecommunications centre facilities were torched, along with the market and UN headquarters. Central Manatuto, population 35,200, lies totally destroyed and completely depopulated.

All over Balibo, near the north-west border, houses were still burning last weekend. Damage was reported as very extensive. Ainaro, the district capital of the fertile coffee-growing south-west, is 70 per cent destroyed. Same, about 80 kilometres south of Dili, is 40 per cent destroyed.

Some villages surrounding the main district centres lie in ruins, while others inexplicably escaped damage. In Suai, on the south-west coast, where militia are alleged to have massacred more than 100 unarmed refugees sheltering in the grounds of a church, all the buildings are in ruins, with the former UN headquarters gutted.

Only a radio mast remains undamaged and, attached to it, an Indonesian flag fluttered in the breeze.

Militia ordered to change tactics

Jakarta -- The commander of the East Timorese militia has ordered his men to halt their campaign of terror, and apologize to their victims, the state Antara news agency said Tuesday.

The militia should now change tactics and try to win over the people with "good communication and friendship" in the "long struggle" to win back East Timor for Indonesia, Antara quoted militia supremo Joao da Silva Tavares as saying.

Antara said it had received a signed copy of Tavares' written instruction "to all commanders" sent from the border town of Atambua in West Timor. It was dated September 25.

"In relation to the recent shooting, stealing and looting of the wealths and stockpiles, intimidation and unrest towards the people ... I must instruct a halt to such actions as these," Tavares said.

"The struggle of the PPI (the Integration Fighter Force) and the East Timorese generally, is still too long, therefore it needs good communication and friendship.

"It is therefore necessary to us to create a situation which could give a safe feeling to the people by the PPI."

Firm "preventive and curative" measures, were needed, he added, and he would not tolerate actions "which violate the law." He also expressed his "sympathy and concern" for the "many brutal actions by individuals using the name of PPI."

The Indonesian army-backed militia carried out an unchecked campaign of terror, arson and murder in East Timor after the announcement on September 4 that the East Timorese people had voted four-to-one in favor of independence.

The capital Dili and most other major towns were reduced to ashes before world outrage resulted in the dispatch of a multinational peacekeeping force there which arrived on September 21.

Tavares and hundreds of the militia have since poured over the border into Indonesian-ruled West Timor, while those who remained in the East are being rounded up and disarmed by the International Froce in East Timor (Interfet).

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has raised the alarm that the militia are now controlling the camps housing some 230,000 East Timorese refugees.

Many of the refugees have said they were forcibly deported at gunpoint by Indonesian military planes and ships from the East, and fear the militia will not allow them to return.

Community leaders in Kupang, the main town in West Timor, and in Atambua, the main town of the Belu district neighbouring East Timor which has borne the brunt of the exodus, have also complained about the unruly militias and called on the police to disarm and restrain the militias.

Bishop says 9 church workers killed

Lisbon -- Nine church workers including two nuns and a priest have been shot dead by Indonesian troops in the eastern part of East Timor, Bishop Basilio do Nascimento told Portuguese television on Monday.

The Bishop of Baucau said the group, all of whom worked for the Baucau diocese, were gunned down on Saturday and their bodies dumped in a river.

"This morning we received the news, unfortunately confirmed, that the nine people were killed and their bodies thrown into a small river," he told the state RTP channel in a telephone interview from Baucau. He gave no further details of the attack.

He said the group comprised the head of the Caritas Roman Catholic aid organisation in Baucau, two students at the local seminary, two nuns, an Indonesian journalist who worked for a Japanese news organisation, two assistants to the nuns, and a driver.

They were attacked on their way back to Baucau from Lospalos in the far east of the territory where they had travelled to assess the type of humanitarian aid needed there. "Unfortunately, they never returned to Baucau," he said.

A Roman Catholic priest identified as Father Martins had earlier told Portugal's radio TSF by telephone from East Timor that seven church workers had died when their vehicle was attacked by a group of soldiers on the road between Baucau and Los Palos.

In Rome, the Roman Catholic news agency MISNA named the nuns as 69-year-old Erminia Cazzaniga, Mother Superior of Manatutu and Baucau, and 48-year-old East Timorese Celeste de Carvalho Pinto.

An Australian-led multinational force is trying to restore order to East Timor, laid waste by pro-Jakarta militias after the former Portuguese colony voted for independence from Indonesia on August 30.

[On the same day Associated Press said that a Falintil commander claimed his men had shot dead 11 militiamen responsible for the killing during a firefight on Monday morning. "Those who came to check the corpses, they fell into our ambush and were wiped out," the commander, identified only as Leres, told Portugal's TSF Radio by satellite telephone. He did not say how he knew those men were those responsible for Saturday's massacre - James Balowski.]

Discarded evidence witness to atrocities

Mark Dodd, Dili -- A vast cache of documentary and forensic evidence linking Jakarta's involvement to hardline pro-Indonesian militias accused of horrendous human rights abuses continues to lie unsecured in Dili one week after the arrival of Australian- led peacekeepers.

Since their discovery a week ago, the remains of an unknown number of suspected militia victims remain in the bottom of a well less than one kilometre from the Hotel Turismo, where Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Barnes gives a daily briefing to Australian and foreign reporters.

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said a team from Dili's main hospital probably would recover the remains in the well, which is behind a house owned by the independence activist Mr Manuel Carrascalao.

One senior United Nations political official said last week that the death toll from two weeks of militia violence could be more than 1,000.

Mr David Wimhurst, the UN's spokesman in East Timor said: "There is no structural body that can be brought to bear [to investigate the alleged atrocities] and this is a weak point.

"There has got to be a rapid response to protect these sites," he said, especially if an international war crimes tribunal was established.

The Australian commander of the International Force for East Timor, Major-General Peter Cosgrove, said there was some evidence "there have been some awful acts". Speaking to reporters last week, General Cosgrove said it was his wish to see "some professional investigators come in rapidly".

Indonesian military also appear to be aware that their failure to remove evidence could be incriminating. Six gun-toting Indonesian soldiers who yesterday were rummaging through the offices of the ransacked Foundation for Legal Human Rights moved journalists away from the building.

Next door, at a building formerly occupied by the Integrated Intelligence Unit, Indonesian soldiers prevented people from entering. Locals claim the building was a former torture and detention centre.

At the deserted headquarters of the pro-Jakarta Forum for Unity, Democracy and Justice, a bounty of material evidence including membership lists, office files, accounting records and propaganda lies strewn around the office at the mercy of looters. Among the papers were boxes of newly printed pamphlets, part of a campaign to tarnish the reputation of the pro-independence Falintil guerilla force.

The booklets, first printed in Villawood, Sydney, in 1998 by the "East Timor Service Foundation", show in graphic and obscene detail the rape, torture and murder of several women.

The photographs have previously been published and are listed on the Internet. Human rights groups believe they were taken by Indonesian soldiers and the victims were ethnic Chinese living in East Timor and East Timorese students detained by the Indonesian military. As part of the propaganda campaign against Falintil, the booklet alleges the crimes were committed by pro-independence forces.

Bundles of documents also lie strewn across the floor of the deserted Aitarak militia post. One contains a list of 119 militiamen from the Dili-based Company B, whose commander, Eurico Guterres, is implicated in several crimes. Another hand-written list contains the names of 24 suspected members of the pro- independence National Council for Timorese Resistance. Their fate is unrecorded.

Timorese exiles go into hiding after threats

East Timorese refugees in Indonesia, including the resort island of Bali, are being threatened with death by soldiers and militiamen, but plans for a large-scale evacuation are being delayed by the reluctance of foreign governments to accept large numbers of refugees.

In the Balinese capital, Denpaser, hundreds of fugitive East Timorese went into hiding after soldiers and militiamen picketed banks, shops and phone offices, barring refugees and threatening to kill them.

Last week Indonesian soldiers fired into the air near where refugees were staying. Local authorities say the arrivals are infected with malaria and several hotels in Bali have been ordered to report East Timorese guests to the military. Militia members have been seen carrying lists bearing the names of those associated with the independence movement, including political activists, students, humanitarian workers, nuns and Catholic priests.

Reports by human rights organisations suggest that dozens of people appearing on such lists were murdered in mid-September as they evacuated East Timor by boat, and their bodies dumped in the sea.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the National Council for East Timorese Independence are trying to evacuate as many as 2,000 East Timorese trapped in Indonesia, but the plan is foundering.

Many refugees are reluctant to disclose their names and locations to the humanitarian agencies, fearing the lists will be passed to the Indonesian government. There is also the problem of where the refugees will go after leaving Indonesia.

"We are very worried for the security of East Timorese in Indonesia, especially as they make their way from safe houses to ports and airports," said a spokesman for Amnesty International. "They are refugees and they should have the same rights and protection as refugees anywhere."

Earlier this month Australia received more than a thousand refugees who had taken refuge in the United Nations compound in Dili, but Canberra is said to be reluctant to accept sole responsibility for the exodus. Diplomats want to keep the refugees in the South-East Asian region, to allow their speedy repatriation when the situation in East Timor stabilises, and the Philippines is being discussed as a possible destination.

"Last week there was a lot of momentum," a Western diplomat in Jakarta said yesterday. "But now I sense that the whole thing is losing steam."

Outside East Timor the highest number of refugees is in West Timor, where 200,000 are living in conditions of squalor and fear. But across the Indonesian archipelago there are smaller East Timorese communities, which have become the victims of a systematic campaign of intimidation.

In Lampung, Sumatra, East Timorese students have been told that they will now be treated as foreign students and have been evicted from their accommodation.

In Ujung Pandang, on the island of Sulawesi, 3,600 refugees are living in schools, mosques and churches under the control of the feared Aitarak militia, and students in Yogyakarta, central Java, have fled to Jakarta.

Unconfirmed reports from the capital speak of a training camp for 2,000 East Timorese, many of them press-ganged, who are being trained to return for incursions into East Timor.

Prabowo's killers stalking activists

Craig Skehan, Jakarta -- East Timorese independence supporters say they are being terrorised in Jakarta and elsewhere by militiamen with shadowy political connections.

Sources said that one man who had been actively involved in searches for independence activists was closely connected to Prabowo Subianto, the disgraced son-in-law of former president Soeharto. The man, who is blind in one eye, is reputed to have criminal connections.

Prabowo is a former head of the Indonesian Kopassus special force, which has been involved in training anti-independence militias in East Timor. In May last year, Prabowo was sacked after soldiers under his command were accused of kidnapping and torturing political dissidents.

Opposition groups say they suspect that Prabowo loyalists are linked to a growing number of disappearances of East Timorese independence activists who were forced to flee from their strife-torn homeland.

"There is no doubt that people have disappeared, not just here in Jakarta but in other places as well, including Bali," one activist told the Herald. "It is just a matter of how many have gone into hiding and how many have been kidnapped or killed."

An East Timorese human rights activist whose home in Dili was destroyed in a militia attack was able to escape to Jakarta. "I am with a group and we move houses every couple of days," he said. "There are a lot of people like us."

One East Timorese leader said the bodies of four East Timorese independence supporters, all men, had been found in Tanggeran township west of Jakarta. He said there had been reports that the same area was being used by Indonesian commandos to train militias for future use in a guerilla campaign in East Timor aimed at disrupting attempts to build an independent state.

East Timorese leaders estimated more than a thousand East Timorese may have fled to Jakarta. "It is not easy to get here if people are known to have worked for the independence cause," one source said. "People have to hide on the way. Now, even here in Jakarta, they are not safe."

Although now living overseas, Prabowo maintains a network of supporters within the armed forces.

UN Press Conference by Xanana, Horta

The multinational force in East Timor must rapidly expand to start building peace and security in the territory, East Timorese leaders Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos Horta told correspondents at a press conference, sponsored by Portugal, at Headquarters this afternoon.

Mr. Gusmao said he and Mr. Ramos Horta were at Headquarters to discuss issues related to the transition period, including rebuilding the country, and assisting the people during the difficult phase ahead with United Nations officials. They were also in New York to say East Timor was prepared to go ahead with the transitional period, and move towards independence, for which it had fought for the past 24 years.

Parts of East Timor were now under control of the Armed Forces for the National Liberation of East Timor (FALINTIL), he said. The international force in East Timor (INTERFET) had begun to move to Baucau, the second largest town. Security remained a problem in the western part of the territory, in areas including Dili itself, Same and Ainaro. The multinational force must now rapidly increase the number of troops in East Timor to start building peace and security there.

Those who had been taken to the concentration camps in West Timor and islands north of East Timor were living in very poor conditions, he continued. For humanitarian reasons, the international community should act quickly to return to East Timor the more than 200,000 persons living in extreme distress.

A correspondent asked what kind of commitments had been made by United Nations officials. Mr. Gusmao responded that the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) remained committed to solving the East Timor problem and helping the people of East Timor in a concrete manner. That would include training programmes, building basic infrastructure and an emergency plan to resettle those who had fled to the jungle and those who would be brought back from the concentration camps in Indonesia.

In response to a question about his meeting with Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Ali Alatas, Mr. Gusmao said it had been beneficial for both sides. His intention had been to reaffirm to the Indonesian Government that by working together a new future could be built for the people of East Timor and the people of Indonesia. East Timor was ready to relieve Indonesia of the burden it bore and the dangers it faced with the waves of violence in East Timor. The meeting had been friendly, and the Indonesian Government had seemed to "welcome our message", he said. Indonesia had recognized that what had happened in the past few weeks was shocking and that things should be done differently.

Had the Indonesian Government made any promises? a correspondent asked. Mr. Gusmao said it had promised to contribute to the greatest possible extent to pacifying East Timor and repatriating refugees. It had also promised to contribute to assessing the territory's immediate needs, such as sanitation and water supply.

Asked whether he sensed any repentance or apologies from Mr. Alatas, Mr. Gusmao said he had, although it had not been stated. The Foreign Minister had said that everything that had happened was beyond the control of the Government and that Indonesia had been shocked by the violence in East Timor.

What role would women play in the government being formed in East Timor? a correspondent asked. Mr. Gusmao said that today women held leadership positions in East Timor and were working hard in a wide range of activities. "We want to build a society in East Timor which values democracy, human rights and transparency", he said. The aim was to promote East Timorese culture and promote gender equity, and women would play a role in the entire process.

The same correspondent asked for comment on media perceptions that Mr. Gusmao had isolated himself from grass-roots and solidarity movements since his release from prison. "It was not my wish to go to Darwin. I wanted to go back to East Timor, but I was advised not to go", he said.

He said he had not expected to be the object of so much attention in New York, but had to accept it in the interest of the people of East Timor, of whom he was a representative. In 24 years of fighting, the people of East Timor had always sensed and gained strength from the international solidarity movement.

What role was envisaged for East Timorese leaders during the period of transition? a correspondent asked. That issue was the subject of ongoing discussion with United Nations officials. Members of the National Council of the Timorese Resistance (CNRT) had been dispersed around the world during the past 24 years. It was only days ago that they had begun to gather in Darwin to start planning their return and their role in the transitional period. He expected that there would be some areas over which the United Nations would take charge, some where obligations would be shared and others where East Timorese leaders would fully take charge. The period must be understood as a transition to independence; East Timorese must participate actively in the process to prepare themselves for independence.

When asked what the minimal requirements were for the tripartite meeting to be considered a success, Mr. Gusmao said there must be agreement on scheduling Phase III. It was clear that Phase II was no longer acceptable under the present conditions. Some sort of administration and political control must be implemented in the territory immediately. East Timor could not remain in an administrative and political vacuum, waiting for a decision by Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which was a domestic matter only. A correspondent then asked about recognition of the claims of companies and families controlling East Timorese resources. Mr. Gusmao said legitimate rights would be respected. Before leaving Jakarta, he had invited Indonesian businesses to invest in East Timor and had already received expressions of interest.

Asked for more details about the western part of East Timor, Mr. Gusmao said that all efforts would be made to "get our brothers back to East Timor". This morning he had asked Mr. Alatas to help repatriate the militias. "We will not take revenge on East Timorese", he said. Much of the violence had been committed by militias from outside East Timor, he added.

Asked if the INTERFET deployment would be sufficient, Mr. Gusmao said 7,000 troops were enough, but their deployment must be expedited.

The Indonesian Government had said it would pass to East Timor its share in the Timor Gap oil revenues, a correspondent said. Would there be need for renegotiation? Mr. Gusmao affirmed that East Timor would honour the terms of the Timor Gap Agreement, and that Indonesia would surrender its rights to the East Timor authority.

"Indonesia had spent $1 million per day during the war", a correspondent asked. How much was needed to rebuild East Timor? he asked. Mr. Gusmao said the plan was to assess the needs on the ground in October and to determine the cost of reconstruction and development planning. The real amounts spent by Indonesia were not known, he added.

Would Indonesia contribute to the costs for East Timor? the correspondent further asked. "I don't think so. They have 200 million people to feed, and it is better for them to take care of their people", Mr. Gusmao said. Mr. Ramos Horta responded to questions on the talks held at Headquarters. In the last 48 hours, intense discussions had been held with the Secretary- General, as well as with senior officials of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Department of Political Affairs, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Tomorrow, they would meet with the head of the World Bank and representatives of more than 30 countries. In the discussions, a number of issues had been highlighted. First among those was the emergency of repatriation.

They had stressed that every diplomatic effort must be directed at Jakarta so that the tens of thousands of East Timorese forcibly relocated to West Timor and islands were relocated to East Timor and then resettled, he continued. At the same time, they had emphasized the humanitarian situation in East Timor, particularly the need to feed, house and care for those who were there now and the returnees. As the emergency situation was addressed, there was need to build infrastructure, based on a joint assessment by the World Bank and donor countries, he went on. The idea was to not duplicate efforts; tomorrow's meeting in Washington would be directed towards finding common ground for assessment, with the aim of sending a joint mission. Then, focus would be on what could be called "a mini- Marshall Plan" for the territory, which the World Bank would be asked to design in consultation with East Timor. Another issue being addressed was the need for the faster deployment of INTERFET, he said. Addressing the humanitarian situation and rebuilding the country would be possible only under conditions of peace and security. East Timor appealed to those countries that had offered contingents to INTERFET to deploy them faster, he stressed.

Another issue being discussed with the Secretary-General, the President of the Security Council, the Foreign Ministers of New Zealand, Don McKinnon and Australia, Alexander Downer, was the role of CNRT in the transition period, he continued. The people of East Timor had voted for independence under the flag of CNRT. The CNRT had earned the right to participate actively in the transition. In the United Nations in the 1960s and 1970s national liberation movements from countries such as Namibia (SWAPO) and South Africa (ANC) had gained special status in the Organization -- the General Assembly had recognized them as the sole legitimate representatives of the people without their having been elected in those territories.

On the basis of the legitimacy that came from the 30 August referendum, the CNRT expected to be consulted at every level and to participate actively in the transition period, he emphasized.

A correspondent asked for Mr. Gusmao's views on criticism of the Secretary- General's decision to proceed with the referendum despite warnings of violence. Mr. Gusmao said he fully supported every decision taken by the Secretary-General. For 23 years, the people of East Timor had lived in danger and suffered a huge death toll to gain the right to self-determination. The risk was taken by them, and they were determined to continue in order to achieve their sacred goal. Now, with media attention, the world was witnessing the barbarous actions and questioning the Secretary-General's decision. But for 25 years no one had known what was happening -- "we were taking the risks on our own".

"On behalf of the people of East Timor, I express gratitude not only for the concern showed by the Secretary-General but also for his commitment", he said. No one had expected the violence to reach that level. Even Minister Alatas had recognized that the level of violence was shocking, including to the Indonesian Government. The whole world did not expect such violence to happen, and that includes Indonesia itself.
 

Presidential succession

Indonesia moves up presidential vote

Lewa Pardomuan, Jakarta -- Indonesia's top legislative body will elect a new president on October 20, bringing forward an event many hope will halt the country's leadership drift under the deeply unpopular incumbent, B.J. Habibie.

Members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) also agreed to curb the powers of the presidency -- abused for decades under former long-time rulers Suharto and Sukarno -- and moved towards formally releasing East Timor from 23 years of disputed rule by Jakarta.

"The date has been decided. The presidential election will be on October the 20th," Slamet Effendy Yusuf, deputy chairman of former ruling party Golkar, told reporters after a closed-door meeting of assembly members.

Other assembly members, including Sabam Sirait from the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), confirmed the 700- seat MPR had agreed to bring forward the vote to October 20. A vice president is likely to be elected on October 21 and a new government chosen soon after that.

Legislators had wanted to bring the presidential vote forward from the previous November schedule, citing deep political uncertainty, economic crisis and popular unrest.

Lawmakers said it was likely violence-torn East Timor would win independence from the chamber but one official pointed to the potential problem of dealing with East Timorese who favoured integration with Indonesia.

"I think it will be difficult if we do not lift [the decree]," said Aisyah Amini, a senior member of the United Development Party. "There is a tendency we are going to do it. The problem is now how we pay attention to the aspirations of the pro- integration people."

Indonesia has little more than a caretaker government after the resignations of six ministers this week to take up MPR seats, leaving a quarter of the cabinet holding more than one portfolio.

The MPR includes 500 legislators from the newly convened parliament, the first to be freely elected in over 40 years. The two chambers are expected to elect speakers on Sunday and Monday, respectively.

The schedule for the presidential vote and the other elections are expected to be formally endorsed later on Saturday.

The assembly is also likely to set October 14 as the date for Habibie's accountability speech to the MPR -- a report card on his own 16 months in office. If it is rejected, Habibie's already faint hopes of being re-elected would evaporate.

That would further shorten the odds on frontrunning candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri, whose PDI-P won the biggest share of the vote in parliamentary elections in June.

The unelected Habibie remains under massive pressure over East Timor's decision to break from Indonesian rule and a major banking scandal which has implicated members of his inner circle.

Golkar's Yusuf, speaking earlier to reporters, said the MPR wanted to weaken the powers of the presidency to avoid a repeat of past abuses in the world's fourth most populous country.

Indonesia has a presidential-style government similar to the United States. A powerful president forms government independently of the parliament.

Parties agree on MPR session

Jakarta -- In an unprecedented move, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Wiranto brought together on Tuesday leaders of six major political parties to hammer out a commitment to ensure the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) runs smoothly.

The closed-door meeting was held at the Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi building in Central Jakarta. Sources said it was initially to be held at the military-owned Wisma A. Yani, but was moved to provide a more neutral location.

The six party leaders attending were Megawati Soekarnoputri of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Akbar Tanjung of the Golkar Party, Matori Abdul Djalil of the National Awakening Party (PKB), Hamzah Haz of the United Development Party (PPP), Amien Rais of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and Yusril Ihza Mahendra of the Crescent Star Party (PBB).

Also present was chairman of the Nadhlatul Ulama Muslim organization Abdurrahman Wahid, influential Muslim intellectual figure Nurcholish Madjid, former minister of trade Frans Seda and University of Indonesia rector Asman Budi Santoso.

Nurcholish, who was appointed as the meeting's media spokesman, said the participants had agreed that the Assembly's General Session, due to begin on Friday, should proceed smoothly and peacefully as a legitimate gateway for a new and democratic Indonesia.

"Therefore, all actions aimed at foiling the General Session by any side will be seen as a negation and, even, a betrayal of the people's aspirations," he said.

Participants at the meeting said it was the first in a series of gatherings between the military and political parties.

The meeting was held under the backdrop of mass protests here against the controversial state security bill, which culminated in clashes with security forces and claimed eight lives. There are fears that the latest tragedy will spark more demonstrations during the General Session.

Amien Rais said that in future meetings, student leaders would be invited to take part. "What we just had was a preliminary meeting. There may be three or four more. And at the next meetings, student figures could be invited," he said. Nurcholish said party leaders expressed a commitment to avoid misunderstandings and unhelpful criticisms of one another so that problems arising during the General Session could be resolved peacefully.

"We also agreed [not to intervene and] to let the General Session discuss, formulate and decide peacefully what is best for the nation in the next five years," Nurcholish said.

Amien said he was pleased that the big name party leaders had agreed to participate at the meetings. "We have a common perception and vision about the General Session and we are all committed to making it a success ... We are also of the same opinion that there should be no use of force in the decision- making process at the General Session."

Amien said what was important was that party leaders had agreed not to mobilize their supporters to intervene during the General Session. "We will accept, without reservation, all decisions taken by the General Session," he pledged. When asked whether the issue of presidential candidates was discussed at the meeting, Amien responded in the negative.

Wiranto hailed the meeting and admitted being surprised at the strong commitment from the leaders. "During the two-hour meeting, all participants presented their vision on the MPR General Session and they shared the same opinion.

"Of course, the meeting is not a solution for all problems, but it is a strong foundation in facing the General Session and any problems in the future," he said.

Yusril said he proposed the possibility of discussing power- sharing options with the party leaders. "But I didn't receive enough responses," he said.

Back-room manoeuvres in Jakarta

Major political heavyweights hope to arrive at some consensus on the rules of the game for the presidential election scheduled for Nov 10

Susan Sim, Jakarta -- A party leader humiliated by his presidential candidate holds secret talks with the enemy camp, whose chief continues to baffle with her disinterest; a top general courted by all sides decides finally to do the right thing, and offers to underwrite an all-star political meeting.

With three days to go before Indonesia's highest legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), swears in its first mixed batch of freely elected MPs and appointees, a sense of urgency is leading to some surprising manoeuvres, some of which might finally come to light.

First on the agenda: a meeting of the major political heavyweights, those whose parties contested the June election and won seats.

The aim: to arrive at some consensus on the rules of the game, the game being the presidential election now scheduled to take place in the MPR on Nov 10.

The problem: it is the military that is proposing this pre-MPR caucus, in the hope of pre-empting any party from taking its fight to the streets and the inevitably bloody aftermath.

"We have psychological problems regarding the military's role. The image of party leaders listening to the military could create a window for unrest, could create a sense of insecurity among the people," a close aide to a major party leader told The Straits Times.

"We don't know if in the end, the military is the solution or the problem. Tensions are very high after last week's riots."

The anti-military riots was started by students protesting a newly passed internal security Bill. It spiralled into near- anarchy and has also led General Wiranto to reconsider his own political viability.

Said a confidante: "He's become more hesitant about accepting the offers of becoming a presidential or vice-presidential candidate. "He's thinking of just playing a role in getting all the elites together and he'll abide by whatever decisions they make."

Gen Wiranto's political prospects had looked promising just a month ago. Both President B.J. Habibie and Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri wanted him as his/her running mate; he could have secured the country's No. 2 post and total command of the military by stating his terms.

The No. 1 post was also within reach, although a careful public relations campaign would have been needed to establish his reform credentials while he took on the aura of the reluctant kingmaker.

Even the East Timor debacle and international threats to put him and his military in the dock for war crimes would not have derailed his ambition.

The same student demonstrators who called for his resignation last Saturday would have demonstrated on his behalf if the UN came after him. He is their general for them to censure and disparage, not the foreign community's.

But the riots too hammered home the point that Indonesians would no more trust their generals in politics, whatever their motives.

Military spokesman Major-General Sudrajat even took pains to ensure his critics knew the decision for the President to hold off signing the security Bill into law came from Gen Wiranto.

A classified memorandum he supposedly sent to the Indonesian Human Rights Commission even noted that he took the decision to appease the public even "before he discussed it with President Habibie".

To be sure, the duet between the President and the General had become increasingly dissonant. Gen Wiranto was left seething with anger when Dr Habibie impulsively cancelled a plan to set up a military command in Aceh as part of measures to diffuse separatist tendencies by turning over security functions to the Acehnese themselves.

At the same time, the President's insistence on Golkar naming Gen Wiranto his running mate now has taken on the air of a desperate incumbent looking for support from the military.

Insiders said that at a meeting between Dr Habibie and Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung 10 days ago, the candidate had screamed at his party boss in front of Gen Wiranto and other witnesses.

When he disclosed that the General would be relieved of duty next month to make himself available for nomination, Gen Wiranto looked "visibly annoyed".

Mr Akbar too felt humiliated, one of his aides said. Although he did announce to reporters that he would ask Golkar to endorse the Habibie-Wiranto ticket soon, he has also been meeting secretly with Ms Megawati of the Indonesian Democratic Party- Perjuangan (Struggle).

This second-track strategy is seen as necessary to secure the party's future, especially since at least half of its legislators appear unwilling to vote for Dr Habibie next month. It is also dictated by reality. Golkar deputy secretary-general Muchyar Yara told The Straits Times: "The election results show the people want change, they don't want Golkar to lead the government.

"If we try to force Habibie's candidacy through, it is easy to calculate that he'll have only one to two years before the people kick him out. Maybe less. Then Golkar will again have supported an illegitimate government. It'll be finished."

A party source said Mr Akbar met Ms Megawati and Mr Matori Abdul Djalil, chairman of Indonesia's Nation Awakening Party, in secret talks last Friday.

Golkar would like the vice-presidential slot for a Megawati- Akbar ticket as well as some Cabinet posts in the new government.

But no negotiations had begun yet. "It is important for Ibu Mega and Akbar to be comfortable with each other first, to find a fit," the source said.

But Indonesia's future lies not just with the largest two parties, the military reckons. All the parties have to find their fit in the new political constellation too. And perhaps then, the military will find its niche too.
 

Political/economic crisis

Clashes claim at least 217 lives in Maluku

Ambon -- A total of 217 fatalities were recorded in communal clashes across the province between July and September, police said on Tuesday.

Maluku Police chief Col. Bugis Saman told a media conference that the number of casualties was likely to be higher due to unconfirmed reports by people of missing relatives.

"We have registered only identified casualties. There are many reports of missing people or victims who remain unknown after being buried."

Apart from the dead, which included a member of the security personnel, 422 people sustained severe injuries and over 200 others suffered minor wounds during the three-month period, the second phase of religious conflicts that have devastated the archipelagic province.

More than 1,500 houses, 13 churches, seven mosques, five government buildings and four school buildings were attacked, as well as 21 cars, eight motorbikes and 57 three-wheeled motorized vehicles.

About 350 people were killed in the first wave of clashes which hit the province between January and March this year. Violence initially broke out in the provincial capital Ambon and spread to neighboring islands. It resumed in July in remote islands and extended to Ambon.

Bugis, who has retained his post amid the turbulence in the famed Spice Islands, said 86 people were arrested in connection with the violence. He said 30 of them would be charged with illegal possession of weapons. Police seized 50 homemade rifles and bazookas, 708 arrows, 16 spears, 18 machetes, 157 swords and homemade bombs plus dozens of bullets.

More than 31,000 people have fled their homes across the province and are now sheltered in government offices, seaports, mosques, churches and military installations.

Bugis' report came hours after seven people were wounded from gunshots and a homemade bomb explosion in Ambon.

Witnesses said the clash occurred at 6am local time when a group of people attacked residents in Hatiwe Kecil subdistrict, about five kilometers from downtown. Many residents were still asleep when the attack took place.

They said a number of security personnel opened fire on the groups. A Hatiwe Kecil resident, Jefry Nahumuri, said he was taken by surprise and could not avoid being shot in the left calf. "I only saw that the man was wearing a military beret," Jefry said. Jefry and three of his neighbors were admitted to the private Dr. Haulussy Hospital.

Chief of the local police Lt. Col. Ghufron could not be reached for comment, but one of his staff, Sgt. Lodar, confirmed the clash and said all the victims were treated at Haulussy hospital. Business, government and educational activities continued in several areas despite the clash.
 

Aceh/West Papua

Irian Jaya clashes leave 14 dead

Jakarta -- A second day of clashes between local tribesmen and migrants in the mining town of Timika in Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province killed four people, raising the death toll in two days to 14, reports and a tribal activist said Friday.

Irian Jaya Police Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Danier Suripatty said in Jayapura, the capital of Irian Jaya, that four people were killed and 10 others seriously injured in Timika on Friday.

Suripatty was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying the clashes flared again on Friday after the discovery of a the body of a loal tribesman in the Kwamki Lama neighbourhood.

Local tribesmen paraded the body towards Timika but the convoy was pelted with rocks on the way and clashes ensued, he said. Several houses and shops were also stoned and a vehicle torched, he added.

On Thursday 10 people were killed in clashes between tribesmen and migrants, activists said. Press reports had put Thursday's toll at five. "Reports we have received say that 10 people have been killed from both sides in yesterday's [Thursday's] clashes," an activist of the Amungme Tribal Consultative Institute (Lemasa) told AFP by telephone from Timika.

The first two victims Thursday were Irianese who were stabbed to death by men from the Bugis migrant community from South Sulawesi during a dispute in downtown Timika after dusk Thursday.

Reports of the incident quickly spread, prompting anger from the local tribesmen who attacked the Buginese, who later rallied with other migrants and fought back, the activist, who identified himself only as George, said. "Some of the victims fell after the Indonesian military intervened," he said.

A district police sergeant, Agus, earlier Firday had declined comment other than to say the city was still tense and most officers remained on site to restore order.

The Jakarta Post quoted a sergeant of the Timika sub-district police as saying five people, all migrants, were killed by tribesman late on Thursday. The two Irianese stabbed in the initial incident were merely wounded, he said.

The sergeant said a public market and a bus terminal were torched during the clashes. "Timika is tense and deserted today [Friday]. There are no shops open and no public transportation," George said.

Timika is one of the main cities in the area of the huge Freeport gold and copper mine.

Activists calls for UN inquiry into Aceh

Jakarta -- A human rights lobbyist on Wednesday called on the United Nations to conduct the same sort of inquiry it is making into alleged atrocities in East Timor in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province.

"If the UN has decided to investigate human rights abuses in East Timor, the same thing must also be done in Aceh," Hasballah Saad, the secretary general of the Solidarity for Human Rights in Aceh, told AFP.

"The degree of human rights abuses in Aceh is almost equal to those committed in East Timor," said Saad, who is also an MP from the National Mandate Party.

He said that local rights groups would cooperate with the UN body to provide data on rights abuses in the province if an investigation was conducted.

An emergency session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on Monday voted for an international inquiry into alleged atrocities in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony invaded by Jakarta in 1975.

Aceh has been rocked by violence between soldiers and members and supporters of the Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh Movement) which has been fighting for an Islamic state since the 1970s.

Resentment and discontent in Aceh against the central government has spiralled following Jakarta's failure to punish human rights violators during a decade of military anti-rebel operations which ended last year.

When the operations ended, rights groups unearthed mass graves and brought forward scores of victims of rape and torture which shocked Indonesia.

Military violence continued even after the operations were halted. The bitterness against the government was further fuelled by dissatisfaction over the exploitation of Aceh's natural resources, including natural gas, with little of the profit funneled back to the province.

The discontent has led to mounting calls for a referendum on self-determination for Aceh, which the government has staunchly ruled out.

Call for civil service strike in Aceh

Jakarta -- Leaflets are circulating in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh calling on all Acehnese civil servants to go on strike from October 1, a report said Saturday.

The leaflets, allegedly issued by the separatist Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) movement, called on the civil servants to halt work from the first minute of October 1, the Aceh-based Serambi daily said.

But the leaflets also said workers at schools, health and education facilities, the press and several basic infrastructure services, could ignore the call.

"Besides these, which we will permit to continue, all others should halt," the leaflets said. They urged people to follow the call and ended with: "Free the homeland of Aceh-Sumatra."

"We are being serious, all this is done for the sake of the people and a sovereign Aceh," Aceh Merdeka spokesman Abu Rozak told Serambi.

"This leaflet only concerns government officials and offices... while buses and public transport and shops will remain open as usual." Neither the leaflets nor Rozak mentioned the sanctions for ignoring the call.
 

Human rights/law

Moore rules out independent crimes probe

Sydney -- Australia would not sanction its own investigation into war crimes in East Timor, Defence Minister John Moore said Sunday.

Australian lawyers are planning to head to East Timor as part of an International Committee of Jurists investigation into alleged atrocities.

The move has angered Jakarta and prompted Indonesia's Justice Miniser Muladi to threaten a complete break in ties between the two countries.

Moore said Sunday any investigation of war crimes should be left to the United Nations. "I don't see any reason why we should do anything but act in accordance with the United Nations," he told the Channel Nine television. "And if they [UN] do that [hold an investigation] well then I don't see any reason why it should cause concern."

UN gets tough on probe into rights abuses

The UN Human Rights Commission will go ahead with an inquiry into alleged human rights atrocities in East Timor with or without co-operation from Indonesia, a spokesman said yesterday.

"We would hope for co-operation from Indonesia, but if they fail to give their co-operation, it will not deter us from going forward," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Jakarta yesterday rejected plans for a UN fact-finding mission into reported atrocities, saying foreign experts can instead join its own human rights probe. The Philippines defended its decision to vote against the war crimes investigation, while Thailand said having Thai troops in East Timor would make it easier for Jakarta to swallow "the bitter pill" of international forces.

The United Nations' main human rights body overrode Indonesian objections to an investigation and voted on Monday for an international inquiry -- a possible first step towards establishing a war crimes tribunal for East Timor.

Jakarta has been adamant that it should be allowed to investigate the reports that its army and militias, which the army supported, were involved in widespread killings and pillaging.

"Indonesia rejects the UN fact-finding inquiry on human rights violations in East Timor and also the UN resolution issued on September 27 in New York about the situation in East Timor and conditions following the ballot in August," Justice Minister Muladi said.

He said President Bacharuddin Habibie would issue a government decree explaining the rejection. "However, the Government welcomes foreign human rights experts to join the National Human Rights Commission on East Timor," Mr Muladi said. "The commission is expected to expedite its inquiry."

The Philippines said its opposition to a war crimes investigation was "part of larger diplomatic initiatives" to help restore peace in East Timor.

President Joseph Estrada said the no vote at the UN Human Rights Commission on Monday was in line with the non-interference policy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Philippines, along with China and other Asian countries, voted against the proposal. Japan and South Korea abstained. Thailand's Acting Foreign Minister said yesterday the deployment of troops from Thailand to East Timor should make it easier for Indonesia to accept the multinational force.

"To send the international force to East Timor is a bitter pill for Indonesia to accept," Sukhumbhand Paribatra said. "Thailand sending its troops there will make this pill easier to swallow."
 

News & issues

Injured protesters flee from hospital in fear

Jakarta -- Fearing being visited and taken away by security authorities, at least four patients suffering injuries sustained in a violent rally in Semanggi cloverleaf on Thursday and Friday have fled Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, hospital employees said on Sunday.

F. Ali, head of Irna A ward of the hospital, said three wounded patients under his supervision -- identified only as Asep, Priyo and Firdaus -- left the hospital on Saturday night.

"They were afraid they'd be taken to the [Sukanto] Police Hospital in Kramatjati [East Jakarta]," Ali said.

A nurse in Irna B ward of the hospital said her patient, identified as Sukamto, who suffered a head injury, left for the same reason.

Ali said rumors were circulating around the hospital, claiming that patients wounded during the two-day clashes between protesters and security personnel would be moved to the police hospital.

According to Ali, the three patients who suffered shot wounds in the abdomen said they had received information that they would be moved to the police hospital and questioned.

He said Asep, a parking attendant, sneaked out of the hospital, while Priyo and Firdaus, whose full identities remain unknown, were forcibly taken from the hospital by relatives a few hours later. "We could not force them to stay. They should have remained in hospital until next week," Ali said.

He said the patients had not given their full addresses when registering at the hospital, but only mentioned what area they lived in. "Actually, under such circumstances, we never force patients to pay their hospital bills," Ali said.

According to the nurse, who asked not to be named, her patient was taken away by friends. "They took him out of this hospital last night [Saturday evening]," the nurse said. As many as 30 patients of the Sept. 23 and Sept. 24 violence were admitted to the general hospital from Thursday to Saturday.

As of Sunday, at least six patients were still being treated at the hospital. Jamadi, a 14-year-old street singer, is being treated in the intensive care unit for a shot wound to the chest.

Jamadi, a member of the Union of the Nation's Children (IGAB), was shot on Jl. Sudirman on Friday night, IGAB's coordinator Sugeng said. "The victim's left lung should be surgically removed because it has been damaged by a bullet," Sugeng said.

Jamadi's father, Basri, said he would sue the government and ask for compensation. "At the time being, I only pray for my son's recovery," he said. He said Jamadi's Rp 900,000 (US$112.50) hospital and medicine bill was paid by IGAB volunteers.

Another patient, Ikhsan, who was also shot in the chest, is also considering suing the government after he recovers. The employee of a restaurant was shot on Jl. Sudirman on Friday night after helping students distribute meals to other protesters. "I was just going home from my workplace when I saw students distributing meals and so I joined them. I was shot after that," he said.

Other patients being treated at the hospital are Suratman, a soft drink seller who suffered a head injury, Mustofa and Tejo, who both suffered shot wounds.

Anti-Australian protests hit Indonesian cities

Jakarta -- Australian flags were burned Monday in at least two Indonesian cities, while anti-Australian rallies took place in two other cities amid whipped-up resentment against Canberra's role in East Timor, witnesses and reports said.

A group of protestors returned to the Australian embassy here after a lull of two days and burned an Australian flag, shouting angry slogans against their southeastern neighbour.

In the West Java province town of Cirebon, student protestors forced the local mayor and house speaker to burn Australian flags, the online service of the Kompas daily said.

"Scorched earth Australia" and "Do not stain our country," read two of the banners held aloft by the some 50 demonstrators in Jakarta, who described themselves as "the Red and White Front," and waved small red and white national flags.

The group claimed to be East Timorese, although an AFP reporter saw only two Timorese faces among them. Some of the crowd said they had been paid.

The group sang the Indonesian national anthem, as a cordon of some 100 police and police auxiliaries stood by.

High-school students also rallied at the governor's office in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya to condemn Australia's "arrogance and nosy attitude."

Australian embassy sources told AFP the country's consulate in the North Sumatra province capital of Medan was also besieged by protestors Monday, and that it had closed for the day.

The protestors had set up a tent outside the premises, indicating they planned to picket it round the clock, instead of just during the day as they had since late last week, the sources said.

Among the posters carried by the protesters in Jakarta was one reading "Wipe out Australia," and another proclaiming: "One year of Habibie's presidency, one island sold. How many more do you want to sell?"

The "Red and White Front" has never been heard of previously here. One of the protestors admitted they had been picked up at a small mosque by a man who promised them lunch and 20,000 rupiah (2.4 dollars) in cash.

Eddy Gerzon, who was wearing the black T-shirt of the feared Mahidi militia of which he claimed he had once belonged to, shouted: "Burn the embassy."

Another protestor, Batista Sufa Kefi, who identified himself as a student, said no one had invited Australian soldiers to East Timor.

"Who invited them? I never invited them ... East Timorese were never involved in the May 5 agreement and Habibie had never even lifted a weapon for this country. He is just a transitional president any way," Kefi said, referring to the May 5 deal for an independence ballot in East Timor.

After five of the representatives met an embassy political officer, the demonstrators left to head for the UN office here.

In Cirebon, some 500 students from three local universities marched to the district parliament where they forced House Speaker Suryana to set an Australian flag alight.

The protesters then went to the city's mayoralty across the street and forced Mayor Lasmana Suriatmaja to do the same, but only after the flag had been used to mop the floor there.

In Surabaya, some 25 high-school students staged a brief rally, displaying banners, and singing the national anthem, the Antara news agency reported. "This is one of the many forms to demonstrate our nationalistic feeling, so it's okay to skip class for a while," said Andi, one of the students.

Many Indonesians blame President B.J. Habibie for allowing the UN vote in East Timor on August 30 in which an overwhelming majority voted for independence from Indonesia, which invaded the territory in 1975.

The Australian embassy in Jakarta has seen demonstrations almost daily since the results of the vote were announced on September 4. Unidentified gunmen have twice fired at the mission, most recently on Friday night. No casualties or significant damage were reported in either incident.

The protests have forced Canberra to temporarily close its consulates in the West Timorese city of Kupang and in the city of Balikpapan in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. Trade has been affected, with wheat importers announcing they will seek other sources of supply.

Downer on violence in Indonesia

Compere: Well, finally returning to East Timor. The crisis may have soured Australia's relationship with Indonesia, but the Federal Government is making it very clear it's not going to encourage independence elsewhere in our giant northern neighbour. Yesterday AM reported on smuggled footage from Ambon showing demonstrators being fired on by the military. But, Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, has told reporters in New York this morning that the issues at stake are very different from those in East Timor. Michael Carey prepared this report in New York.

Alexander Downer: We remain committed to constructive and cooperative relations with Indonesia. I believe that our ties can only grow stronger as the Indonesian people make their long walk to democracy and freedom.

Michael Carey: And one way of ensuring the relationship improves is ensuring that East Timor itself is treated as a one- off case. As far as the Australian Government is concerned, independence rumblings elsewhere in Indonesia are in a different category, as Mr Downer explained in his response to the Ambon violence.

Alexander Downer: Well, we've always said in relation to Ambon and Aceh and other incidents that we've seen in Indonesia, that it's very important that both sides, that is the demonstrators, community groups which are involved in these incidents as well as the security forces, respond with, behave with and respond with appropriate restraint.

Question: Why are independence movements elsewhere in the archipelago different from East Timor?

Alexander Downer: Well, look, I'm not going into all of this, but in the case of East Timor, to put it as simply as this I suppose.

Back in 1975 Indonesia invaded East Timor. The East Timorese people wanted their independence. The United Nations had never acknowledged East Timor's incorporation into Indonesia.

Circumstances in other parts of Indonesia are entirely different. They go back to the Dutch colonial rule and the creation of modern Indonesia out of that.

Question: Do you think Aceh and Ambon and other areas in Indonesia, do you think their claims for a self-determination ballot are any less valid than East Timor's?

Alexander Downer: Yes, I do think they're less valid than East Timor's.

Australian minister praises Habibie

Chris Michaud, New York -- Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer on Tuesday praised Indonesian President B.J. Habibie's policies on the troubled East Timor region, saying that without Habibie the saga may never have been resolved.

"The resolution of the tragic East Timor saga was never going to be easy," Downer said of the region whose independence vote last month unleashed a killing rampage by pro-Jakarta militias and elements of the Indonesian military.

"Without President Habibie's actions this year it is hard to believe it would have been resolved for decades, if ever," Downer said in a speech at the Asia Society.

Downer called "the decision of President Habibie to seek help from the United Nations to quell the violence in East Timor" a "courageous step, made at some domestic political cost, as was his initial decision to allow the East Timorese people a ballot to decide their own fate."

He also praised East Timor independence leader Xanana Gusmao, saying he had met him and been "very impressed ... He has that (Nelson) Mandela-type approach of forgiveness," which Downer said was essential in order for East Timor to "start again."

Downer also reiterated Australia's firm support for Indonesia, citing progress on several fronts such as Indonesia's moves toward democracy and an independent East Timor, while conceding that "the crisis ... has strained our ties."

"At the end of the day," he said, "in Indonesia there is a recognition among thinking people that what happened in East Timor was wrong."

"We remain committed to constructive and cooperative relations with Indonesia ... Our ties can only grow stronger as the Indonesian people make their long walk to democracy and freedom." Downer added that he expected those ties to strengthen "now that East Timor ... is removed from the equation."

Addressing criticism from some quarters that the response from the international community to the East Timor crisis was slow in coming, Downer said that "because we were concerned that violence could erupt we had, months earlier, made what turned out to be highly effective plans to deal with such a crisis."

"Once it became apparent that the Indonesian forces ... either would not or could not prevent the violence, concerted international action became imperative."

Downer said the peacekeeping force authorized by the United Nations Security Council to restore order in East Timor -- Interfet -- has now deployed throughout the entire territory" and was providing humanitarian relief.

Australian troops torture militias: Report

[Please note that this item was included to provide an example of the Indonesian media's anti-Australian campaign and is not intended to be taken as a serious news report - James Balowski.]

Jakarta -- Australian troops have reportedly detained and tortured six anti-independence militiamen and civilians in East Timor on their way to refugee camps in the neighboring province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

Antara reported yesterday that among the six victims, three of them were civilians from the NTT town of Atambua and the rest were members of the pro-autonomy group Aitarak.

They were the latest victims of alleged brutality by Australian troops tasked by the United Nations with restoring law and order in the violence-racked territory of East Timor.

Earlier last week, Australian soldiers burned to death a militiaman and tortured several others in a port in the province's capital of Dili.

The six victims of the latest torture were identified as Jonny R Eden, Yani Ndoen, Luis Seru, Lorenso Gomes, Caitano da Silva and Joao Ximenes. The six civilians were detained on Wednesday as they loaded a car with goods, then were tortured in different places in Dili.

Jonny, Luis and Lorenso were released on Friday in Dili's Comoro Airport, but because they were afraid of being killed by pro-independence supporters, Jonny and Lorenso decided to stay in the airport. Luis, who decided to leave the place, is reported missing.

The rest are still being detained by Interfet troops. Both Jonny and Lorenso were then transported by the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) to Atambua along with other refugees from Ermera district.

Jonny was quoted as saying the troops detained them after pro-independence supporters informed the troops that the six civilians were members of the pro-autonomy militia and had committed some killings.

The pro-independence supporters in Dili took part in Interfet's patrol in Dili. "In every Interfet truck or tank, there are some supporters of the pro-independence group in front carrying guns. While in Farol beach, Falintil were also patrolling carrying guns."

The Australia-led International Force for East Timor (Interfet) arrived last week to restore order and security in the rampaged

Jakarta press accuses Australia of atrocities

Jakarta -- As the UN Human Rights Commission approved a probe into allegations of abuse by Indonesian-backed militias in East Timor, newspapers here were screaming about "atrocities" committed by Australian troops in the territory. "Australian troops torture militias," read a headline in the Indonesian Observer [article included below - JB] Tuesday. Another front- page headline in the same newspaper said "Interfet troop tears RI (Republic of Indonesia) flag."

Television stations, which show endless clips of East Timorese being disarmed and tied up at gunpoint by the Australian troops, interview militia leaders lamenting "atrocities" by the International Force in East Timor (Interfet).

Although Major General Kiki Syahnakri, the outgoing Indonesian martial law commander in East Timor, has denied a report of Interfet burning a militiaman to death, the state Antara news agency continues to treat it as fact. Australian ambassador to Indonesia, John McCarthy, whose embassy has been shot at twice and is the target of daily demonstrations in which the Australian flag is burned, calls it a "misinformation campaign."

"There's clearly a misinformation campaign which some elements in this country are engaging in which is meant to discredit Australia and Australian membership of the multinational force," he said. McCarthy described the situation as "discomfort ... but it's not acute peril."

Few analysts think the situation is aimed at whipping up such nationalistic fervor that the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) will refuse to ratify the result of the East Timor August 30 vote for independence.

But most admit there is a danger of it getting out of hand. "I think this reaction is common from early times, when it is we against the foreigners," said senior Indonesian journalist Firki Jufri.

"Even amongst some intellectuals, they now feel that kind of anti-Australian, although it's still a minority," he said pointing to the few dozen who picket the Australian embassy compared to the 10,000 who turned out on Jakarta's streets to protest the passage of a law that would give the military sweeping powers.

Kastorius Sinaga, a political analyst and secretary general of Gempita, an independent anti-corruption watch called the situation a "typical case" of Indonesian overreaction.

"It is some sort of a game played to cover up one's own mistake, and shift the burden of the mistakes on somebody else," he said. "I personally do agree that Australia, as our closest neighbour should be more sensitive to our different culture but to go as far as our government and media have is a pure overeaction. We should not fall into that trap. "Australia is there under the UN banner, not as a government."

Antara meanwhile continued to detail "the latest victims of alleged atrocities by Australian troops," saying six men had been "detained and tortured."

"A massive crackdown is underway against anti-independence militias, a move which many Indonesian analysts claim to be as brutal as the TNI (Indonesian army) did in East Timor," Antara said.

Analysts are reluctant to say who they think is paying the demonstrators outside the Australian embassy, some of whom have told journalists they receive 20,000 rupiah (2.50 dollars) and lunch for a few hours of invective.

But those who do point the finger suggest the Indonesian military. "If the anti-Australian sentiment is being ignited by the government ... followed by individuals or groups who have always been its supporters ... I wouldn't be too annoyed," said Melbourne-based political analyst Arief Budiman.

"However, it turns out that some of my friends ... activists and critical intellectuals ... have also become anti-Australian. Didn't they see television viewings of savagery beyond humanitarian limit in East Timor?"

"Didn't they also realize that the anti-Australian sentiment was just an effort by the government and the TNI to distract their political weaknesses into something else?"

"By using Australia [as a scapegoat] is very beneficial for the Habibie's government and TNI," Budiman was quoted by the Kompas daily as saying.

Drug abuse, a catastrophe in the making

Jakarta -- Drug abuse has become a major social ill in Indonesia, especially among the young, a report said Sunday adding without urgent preventive action, "a new catastrophe" was in the making.

Drug counsellors said peer pressure, poor enforcement and lack of treatment facilities were among the key factors contributing to the rise of the drug scourge.

The Jakarta Post newspaper said drug use was no longer the domain of private parties and discotheques but could now be found in schools.

Joyce Djaelani, a counselor with a Yayasan Permata Hati Kita, a private rehabilitation center said a growing concern now was a rising trend of children using drugs and outbreaks of student brawls.

"What's more alarming is the fact that children have started to use drugs," she said, adding "the students take barbiturate pills before they fight."

Indonesia reportedly has over 1.3 million drug abusers out of its populations of 210 million people. Most drug users and addicts are young, aged between 15 and 35.

On Tuesday customs officials at Jakarta's international airport apprehended an Indonesian girl and her brother with 2.62 kilograms of heroin in their shoes.

The siblings in their early 20s, were passengers of Thai Airways from Bangkok and the estimated value of the heroin was some 250,000 dollars.

Even elementary school students have confessed to taking drugs. An 11-year-old student during a trial of a suspected drug trafficker recently said he had used barbiturate pills for six months.

While the young most often use barbiturate pills or inhale intoxicating agents like glues or gasoline, older addicts abuse ganja and heroine, the designer drug ecstasy, "shabu-shabu" (crystal methamphetamine), "putauw (low grade heroin) and cocaine, the Post said.

Joyce said the number of drug users surged when ecstasy became common in Indonesia in 1996. She called ecstasy the "gateway" to harder drugs like heroin, shabu-shabu and cocaine.

The Post said although the dangers of drugs were well-known, they had failed to stop drug experimentation, adding a lack of enforcement along with experts and facilities to treat drug addiction compounded the problem.

"The role of the police is ironic, it is an open secret that weak and discriminative law enforcement has worsened the drug problems," it said.

A 27-year-old former addict told the Post he was introduced to drugs when he was a university student by his friends.

The son of a businessman in Bali, the former addict said: "I know of some places in Bali where pushers openly sell drugs. In Kuta, for example, if you walk down certain alleys you will bump into strangers who will offer you any drug you want." Joyce also warned drug abuse may exert a much greater toll on society since there was a high risk of transmission of the HIV/AIDS virus among the addicts.

"If health administrators remin slow in dealing with the widespread drug problem, they may face a new catastrophe on their hands," said the Post.
 

Arms/Armed forces

Blood on their hands

Indonesia's generals are under scrutiny for human rights abuses in East Timor but have they covered their tracks? David Jenkins, Mark Dodd, Bernard Lagan and Simon Mann investigate.

The Indonesian Army (TNI) has made the people of East Timor pay a terrible price for daring to vote for independence. Working with its militia proxies, the Army has behaved with a ruthlessness that has shocked even long-term observers of the TNI, laying waste to cities and villages, destroying vital infrastructure, kidnapping and killing political opponents and church leaders, and carrying off as much as it could plunder.

Now, the generals who organised and directed that campaign find themselves confronted by an international investigation into human rights abuses in East Timor.

At a meeting in Geneva on Monday, the UN Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution calling on the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to launch an inquiry to determine who was behind the violence that devastated East Timor before and after the August 30 referendum.

In theory, that should be of grave concern to senior officers in the Indonesian Army, along with whole concourses of colonels, majors, captains and NCOs.

Previous UN commissions of inquiry have led to the establishment of international war crimes tribunals on the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. These tribunals are now prosecuting suspects.

But the men who lead the TNI do not seem to be quaking in their boots. On the contrary. Senior officers believe they have covered their tracks in East Timor. They are confident, sources in Jakarta say, that they have destroyed evidence that may implicate them -- as distinct from their militia underlings -- in acts of murder, mass deportation and wanton destruction.

There are even claims, chilling in their implications, that the Army is methodically eliminating former militia leaders who, having served their grisly purpose, may be tempted by offers of money or sanctuary to discuss the complicity of their former patrons.

"I don't think they are overly concerned about [a war crimes tribunal], to tell you the truth," says a source with high-level TNI contacts. "Most of the people who have evidence or who can corroborate stuff are progressively disappearing. And there are a lot of people who have got information who are probably scared of the TNI at the moment."

The suggestion that the Indonesian Army is now "terminating" key militia figures may overstate the case somewhat. "I've heard that claim [that people are disappearing]", says an expert on the Indonesian military. "But they are going to have to get rid of a hell of a lot of people. And it's not until they get rid of [militia leaders] like Joao Tavarres and Eurico Gutteres that you can say this has some credibility to it."

The other side of that coin, this source notes, is that it might make sense for war crimes investigators to put out feelers to men such as Gutteres, however distasteful that may seem.

"If I were prosecuting I'd be going over there and offering them big money to spill the beans," this source said. "People like Gutteres must have a fairly limited future. They can't go back to East Timor. And once they are no longer useful to the Indonesians they will be cut loose."

It is an open secret in Jakarta military circles that the East Timorese militia groups were recruited, trained, funded and directed by the Indonesian Army, with much of the operation being carried out by elements of Kopassus, the special forces unit.

That view is widely accepted by foreign diplomats stationed in Jakarta. It is widely accepted in UN circles.

It is also true that the UN vote was a major diplomatic reverse for Indonesia. "The war crimes decision was a big defeat [for Indonesia]," said an expert on Indonesian politics. "They tried as hard as they could to prevent it and failed. They didn't even get universal Asian support."

Nor is there any doubt that Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who will organise the investigation, is confident she can build a case against militia members who directed some of the worst violence after the referendum. But establishing a watertight legal case against senior Indonesian army officers may not be at all easy. A shortage of witnesses will only make the task even more difficult.

"What you really need," said one source, "is a piece of paper signed by a guy that says, 'Go and kill them!' We realised that from the Nuremburg trials. So I don't think [the senior TNI officers] are not overly concerned about it. In fact, some of them are making jokes that they are going to get a little medal if they get called before the tribunal. It will be like a badge of courage. And believe me, there are going to be an awful lot of people wearing that badge."

One problem, of course, is that some of the most damning evidence is likely to be not in East Timor but in places such as Washington and Canberra -- material plucked from the air waves by sophisticated US and Australian electronic intercept equipment.

And although the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has said that Australia will provide whatever help it can, there are many in Canberra who would be anxious that we not be too generous.

Partly because that would compromise our intelligence gathering system. Partly, too, because it would further sour relations with Indonesia, not least with our erstwhile friends in the TNI, for whom we once professed such a close and abiding friendship.

Who, if anyone, should be held responsible for the horrors visited on East Timor? In the opinion of many, one man who can expect to face a lot of questions is General Wiranto, the enigmatic Javanese who doubles as Minister of Defence and Commander of the Indonesian military.

"It has to be Wiranto," said one source. "So he'll come up in the tribunal, wherever it meets. There will be an enormous body of evidence [on Indonesian atrocities in East Timor]."

There are two problems with that. First, the Indonesians seem to have changed their mind about co-operating with the UN investigation. Second, it is unlikely that senior officers left their fingerprints at the site of the crime, although stranger things have happened.

As one source put it, "Wiranto presumably wasn't silly enough to give any orders over the air. But even if they were given, how would you prove that he personally authorised them?" Wiranto, it is true, may not fully control his own army. But foreign analysts -- and many retired Indonesian army officers -- say he must accept responsibility for all that has happened in East Timor.

In the months after January, when President Habibie agreed to a UN-supervised referendum, Wiranto had no fewer than four two- star generals working in East Timor, a military district command that had always been headed by a colonel.

The first of these officers is Major-General Adam Damiri, who heads the Bali-based Udayana command, which includes East Timor. According to well-placed sources, Damiri was deeply involved in the campaign to arm and organise the pro-Indonesian militias. "He was in the thick of things," said one analyst.

For the first five months of this year, Damiri had operational control over units in East Timor. He later worked closely, the sources say, with Major-General Zacky Anwar Makarim, a former head of military intelligence who was the most senior Indonesian Army officer in East Timor in the run-up to the referendum.

A member of the feared Kopassus special forces unit, which frequently operated outside the law in East Timor, torturing prisoners and sponsoring quasi-criminal gangs, Anwar served ostensibly as the TNI liaison man with UNAMET, the UN Mission in East Timor.

But his main job, sources say, was to organise the anti- independence militias in an attempt to disrupt the referendum, which Habibie approved in the face of bitter Army opposition.

According to a number of sources, Anwar, a member of a prominent Jakarta family, has participated in a string of unsavoury operations, both in East Timor and Aceh, where the Army has been accused of kidnap, torture and murder.

A veteran of the Indonesian Army's East Timor campaign, he ran a parallel chain of command across the territory drawing on a shadowy network of Kopassus officers and intelligence agents operating as part of the Satgasintel (SGI), an Indonesian acronym for "Intelligence Task Force".

On the eve of the referendum, Anwar was joined in East Timor by Major-General Syafrie Syamsuddin, a special forces officer who had been pushed aside as commander of the Jakarta military region after the May 1998 riots, in which 1,200 people died.

Syafrie, like Anwar, is a former close associate of the disgraced Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto, the self-exiled son-in-law of former president Soeharto.

Prabowo had numerous tours of duty in East Timor, where he was deeply involved in covert political operation, arming and supporting paramilitary groups that were the forerunners of the pro-Jakarta militias.

Until his transfer to East Timor, Syafrie had been operating in an undisclosed capacity in Aceh, where, analysts say, his name sent a chill down the spine of those opposed to rule from Jakarta.

"Acehnese say he is the point man in organising the bad things, the heavy-handed attacks [in the province]," said a well-placed source at the time that Anwar was transferred to East Timor. "The Acehnese think he is the one with blood on his hands. The Islamic press has certainly targeted him as someone who has been playing this almost Prabowo-like role."

Given this involvement, it struck many as alarming that Syafrie was taken out of Aceh and sent, on the eve of the referendum, to East Timor. That, said one source at the time, was "precisely the wrong sort of signal to send".

The fourth of the two-star officers associated with East Timor is Major-General Kiki Syahnakri, who was serving as assistant for operations at army headquarters in Jakarta when he was sent to East Timor a month ago as emergency commander.

Syahnakri, who has left East Timor this week, knew the province well, having spent no less than 11 years there, a remarkable period of time, even by Indonesian Army standards. He had been very close to Prabowo and had been associated, one military analyst noted, "with various unsavoury things that Prabowo's units used to get up to, in Timor and elsewhere".

In the mid-1990s, Syahnakri was removed as the East Timor Korem (military region) commander after only eight months following an international outcry over a massacre of civilians in Liquica.

Syahnakri was only in East Timor for a few weeks this time, however. Some argue that while many horrendous crimes were committed during this time, those actions may not necessarily have occurred with his concurrence.

"I think there is a question mark over him," said one military expert. But the others I've got no doubt about."

Then there are the colonels who ran East Timor or who had special assignments there. One is Colonel Tono Suratman, who was the commander of East Timor in the period to August, when many of the worst crimes were committed, including militia massacres in Dili.

Another key officer is Suratman's successor, Colonel Muhammad Noer Muis, a graduate of an Australian staff college who served briefly as East Timor commander until the arrival of Kiki Syahnakri.

According to one source, Muis opposed the militia violence but was powerless to stop it. "I think Noer was basically an honourable and decent man," said a senior UN official who stayed with the Indonesian colonel at army headquarters in Dili at the height of the post-ballot violence. "He was ordered not to intervene."

When the UN official advised Muis to shoot dead leading militia rabble-rousers on the grounds that "it would make them step back and pause", the colonel replied that it was not possible, saying it would trigger civil war in the streets. Others are less inclined to give Muis the benefit of the doubt. Muis, said one expert on the Indonesian military, was as culpable as any of his predecessors, having presided during his short tenure over the same sort of abuses, in which the army-sponsored militia ran wild.

"Whether he liked it or not," said this source, "he was part of the system. If you're in the system, that's your business." Yet another is Lieutenant-Colonel Nugroho, a special forces officer who spent much of 1998 organising the pro-Indonesia groups that were a forerunner of the militias.

"This guy [Nugroho] has been setting it up," a source in Jakarta said earlier this year, not long after Nugroho had been reassigned to Jakarta. "Zacky Anwar is the point man for the whole thing."

The main militia leaders include Eurico Gutteres, Manuel de Sousa and Cancio Lopes de Carvalho. They ran the gangs of thugs known as Aitarak [Thorn), Besi Merah Putih (Red and White Iron) and Mahidi (Life or Death for Integration).

Gutteres, a 27-year-old firebrand who once supported independence, was recorded on April 17 as urging his supporters gathered outside the governor's office in Dili to "go out and kill the betrayers of integration. I Eurico Gutteres will be personally responsible."

More than 50 people, mostly pro-independence supporters were killed in the subsequent mayhem which swept Dili. Observers in Dili say actions of that nature would not have been possible had the militias not had high-level army backing.

Photographs found last week in the deserted headquarters of Aitarak show Gutteres meeting the disgraced Soeharto.

In the western districts of East Timor there is no shortage of people who have been linked to militia activity. The bupati, or mayor, of Maliana, Guilherme Dos Santos, violently opposed the establishment of pro-independence offices in his district.

At one stage, Dos Santos threatened to kill Australian UN personnel as part of a plan to force the closure of the local UN office. Dos Santos enjoyed close contact with militia leaders and praised pro-integration Indonesian army officers.

His predecessor, Joao Tavarres, who until recently wore a watch stripped from one of the Western journalists killed at Balibo in 1975, was commander-in-chief of all East Timor's pro- integration militias. One of his lieutenants liked to boast that he had 400 assault rifles stored in his fortress-like villa in Maliana.

Tavarres, 69, served as the Bupati of Maliana from 1976 until 1986. Real power in Maliana, however, was vested in the hands of four Indonesian Army NCOs, three of them on active service, the other retired. All four had been active in the district since the mid-1970s.

"They regulated all militia activity and training, including all the nasty stuff," said one Maliana-based political officer. Numerous cases of violence, intimidation and murder could be traced to the NCOs, he told the Herald. The June 29 attack on the UN compound in Maliana by a mob of stone-throwing hooligans is said to have been organised by Lieutenant Satrisno, a 44-year-old Javanese from Surabaya who had served as military commander in nearby Cailaco from 1990 to 1994. When presented with evidence of complicity on the attack on the UN office, he jokingly replied: "If I was involved, everyone would have been killed."

The Dili-based Foundation for Legal and Human Rights held full dossiers documenting human rights abuses in Maliana, many of which involved soldiers attached to the local district command.

Taulus Feireira, the leader of the Dadurus (Typhoon) militia in Maliana, boasted in June that "if we lose autonomy there will be an uprising. It will be like 1975 all over again". He was not far wrong but how did he know?

Low-ranking army officers or NCOs commonly wielded power in East Timor that was not reflected in their rank. Sources in Dili say Warrant Officer Nicodemus is high up on the UN's "wanted list" for human rights violations and intimidation against civilians in Viqueque.

Other low-ranking army personnel have been linked to terrorism and intimidation in Manatuto, a town that was reduced to ruins during recent militia attacks.

Basilio Araujo, spokesman for the hardline Forum for Unity, Democracy and Justice (FPDK), has been accused of inciting violence against those supporting independence. Araujo is widely believed to have been responsible for death threats made against Australian diplomats and journalists.

As the pro-Indonesian militias waged their war of terror and destruction, their activities were closely monitored, by the UN officials, diplomats, journalists and non-government groups. On one occasion, two Americans from the US-based Carter Centre overheard, while in a Dili militia headquarters, radio conversations in which the Indonesian Army directed militia activity.

Perhaps more telling is a report, obtained by the Herald in Darwin this week, by a senior Irish police officer, Commandant Mathew Murphy, who served as a UN military liaison officer at Los Palos in the far east of East Timor.

In his report, Murphy said that although he and his colleagues had what seemed a good working relationship with local army officers, they had failed in their efforts to obtain information about local militia groups.

They had also witnessed an incident which led them to conclude that Zacky Anwar had close links with local militia groups. Anwar had arrived in Los Palos by helicopter the day after a UN vehicle caught fire in the local UN compound.

Commandant Murphy wrote of the incident: "It was our impression of these events that the TNI was afraid that the militia may have been acting on its own before the TNI was ready. The General's visit was to ensure that the militia was not responsible for the fire. I believe this information directly links the TNI with the militia. I also believe that it further illustrates that General Zacky Anwar was linked to the militia."

A week later the leader of the East Timorese resistance movement in Los Palos, Ferismo Quintas, was murdered in his house with a machete. Murphy said he had seen militiamen set Quintas's house on fire and had then heard shots from the house.

He wrote in his report that he believed the TNI had planned the whole operation. The police had established a road block before the shooting began and a TNI soldier was on the scene directing traffic. "There was no doubt in Los Palos that there was a link between the militia and the TNI," Commandant Murphy wrote.

Patience is a virtue, and perhaps a necessity, in war crimes investigations. Although Kofi Annan yesterday asked investigators of atrocities in East Timor to report back to him by the end of December, it may be several years before the perpetrators are brought to justice -- if at all.

Best illustrating the time lapse between investigation and conviction -- between the crime and the retribution -- are the track records of the international tribunals dealing with charges of genocide and human rights abuses in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

The Balkans experience points to a long, hard road ahead. Four years after the worst of the massacres in Bosnia, for example, investigators from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) are still exhuming bodies.

There have been 26 public indictments involving 90 war crimes suspects and a number of secret indictments in which the ICTY conceals identity so as not to forewarn suspects.

So far, about 30 men, mostly from Bosnia and Croatia, have been arrested. Of these, eight have been convicted and one acquitted. The rest remain in a UN detention centre, inside a Dutch prison, awaiting trial.

In Rwanda, the rate of prosecutions is lower: 28 indictments against 48 individuals with 38 now in custody. But just four convictions so far, two of which are being appealed.

What is certain is that the international investigation in East Timor, which is being marshalled by Mary Robinson, will collect ample evidence to justify the establishment of yet another war crimes tribunal, although the procedure is more convoluted than that which led to the Yugoslav and Rwandan trials.

Then, investigations were ordered directly by the UN Security Council. This time, the UNHCHR is investigating and will report to Annan who, in turn, will approach the Council if the belief is that a tribunal is warranted.

The UNHCHR promises to work closely with Indonesia's internal "fact-finding" mission along the way. But Robinson, in New York, made it clear that Jakarta's investigations "were no substitute for an international commission of inquiry".

The UN-backed probe would cover all of 1999 and not simply the post-independence vote bloodshed as proposed by the Indonesians.

Unlike Kosovo, where war crimes investigators were on the ground before the start of NATO's bombing campaign in March, the East Timor probe virtually starts afresh.

Already UN staff in Timor are collecting evidence and witness statements in a bid to home in on the killers and those responsible for human rights abuses. Robinson said UN workers had already found and interviewed two eye-witnesses to the murder of the Dutch journalist Sander Thoenes.

With reports that Indonesian troops, in particular, and militiamen are systematically destroying evidence as they depart the province, the accounts of witnesses take on ever-increasing importance.

In fact, witness statements, especially those that can be corroborated, are arguably the tribunal's biggest single weapon and clearly the UN places great store in them.

It's been a similar story in Kosovo and Rwanda where prosecutors have the ability to shield witnesses from possible revenge attacks by guaranteeing anonymity in the witness box and, sometimes, armed protection outside it.

Kosovo investigators also took thousands of witness statements from refugees who, at the height of the conflict, fled the province to camps in neighbouring Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro.

Later, when back in Kosovo, they sought to match testimonies with those of witnesses who remained in Kosovo as well as painstakingly collecting forensic evidence from crime scenes. The Kosovo database, already, is enormous and as investigators sift through it they construct cases against the accused.

But the Australian lawyer Graham Blewitt, the ICTY's deputy prosecutor, admits to a feeling of frustration that some of the biggest named suspects are yet to be brought to book.

"I think at the grassroots level -- whether it's beatings, burning houses, looting or raping -- you'll find people acting under orders," he told the Herald. "You find some people acting under orders and having no problems doing so. Others are doing it for revenge or just because they're homicidal maniacs ... But higher up the chain of command the motives are more political."

But distance does not provide immunity, to wit the indictments of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb president, and Ratko Mladic, his top general during the Bosnian war, and the more recent indictments of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and four of his deputies. They remain free but, as Blewitt points out, there is no statute of limitations.

And while many believe that the architects of the genocide, murder, torture and rape in East Timor will remain free, the conviction last year of the former Rwandan prime minister Jean Kambanda on six counts of genocide and other crimes is a sou
rce of encouragement to those who hope that those ultimately responsible for East Timor's bloodshed will be punished.