A deadly moment in militia country

By GEOFF CUMMING, GREG ANSLEY and ALISON HORWOOD

The terrain near the West Timor border where Private Leonard Manning died is ideal guerrilla country.

The mountains are steep and rugged, heavily clad in tropical forest, alive with venomous snakes and spiders, leeches and malaria and dengue fever-carrying mosquitoes.

At this time of year it is cool and wet. Roads are unusable and have already taken two New Zealand lives. Soldiers must be flown in, travel by a succession of four-wheel-drives, motorbikes or four-wheeled farm bikes, or walk.

When East Timorese villagers reported armed bandits operating near the village of Nanu, 3km from the border, the New Zealanders despatched a five-member reconnaissance partrol.

Private Manning was the lead scout.

As they moved in to clear the area about 10.45 am local time, a group of up to nine militia fired five shots from semi-automatic and automatic weapons.

The outnumbered New Zealanders returned fire and were withdrawing to a more secure area when Private Manning was shot.

The confrontation lasted for about five minutes and Private Manning was hit twice - once in the back of the head and once in the shoulder as he was running.

Brigadier Jerry Mateparae, the Defence Force joint commander for East Timor, said there was a lot of confusion.

"People were trying to extricate themselves from the area. He became separated, and as it turns out he had been killed."

It was not an ambush, but one side saw the other and shots were fired. It did not appear that any of Private Manning's comrades saw him shot. Brigadier Mateparae said that from what he had been told, it was not an execution.



The troops retreated to a safe point, secured themselves in a defensive position and radioed a superior to say they were waiting for Private Manning.

Battalion commander Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Dransfield set up a series of cordons around the area, then went back with additional forces to look for what, at that stage, was a soldier separated from his team. He found the body of Private Manning two to three hours after the incident.

He had been stripped of his semi-automatic Steyr rifle and ammunition. He was likely to have carried at least four 30-round magazines.

Brigadier Mateparae said the killers were well-armed, with both semi-automatic and automatic weapons.

A full inquiry would be held. But he had no concerns about how the group responded during the gunfight.

The area in which Private Manning was killed is a known trouble spot and typical of the country Colonel Dransfield's troops face. Throughout their area of operations, alert status is high and weapons are loaded.

Ironically, the militia are protected by the rules of engagement that control New Zealand soldiers. Under these rules troops may return fire to defend themselves, but cannot launch a firefight or continue to fire if the militia call off their attack and retreat.

The soldiers cannot chase militia across the border.

It was the third attack on UN peacekeepers in the past two months, producing the UN mission's first "conflict" fatality.

The southern border area, which New Zealand's 2/1 Battalion patrols, is a known pro-Indonesian stronghold.

It was the home of the Mahidi militia, led by Cancio de Carvalho - still at large in the west - which at its peak claimed 15,000 members, some armed with automatic weapons supplied by the Indonesian army (TNI), and was responsible for a massacre at Suai Cathedral.

Its members are among those suspected of slipping into the east, and more recently of moving back into sympathetic villages, where they sleep by night and hide in surrounding jungle by day.

The militia, though much diminished from the thousands who joined in the violence surrounding last year's East Timor independence process, has stepped up activity in the area, which is a difficult region for foot patrols to cover and offers good concealment from helicopter surveillance.



Infiltrators can escape rapidly to refugee camps across the border, where as many as one-half of the estimated 100,000 East Timorese remaining in the west are expected to refuse to go home.

The UN this month attacked Indonesia for allowing a campaign of intimidation to continue from West Timor, including attacks on UN staff that prompted the evacuation of 750 workers from 50 camps along the border.

New Zealand and Australian commanders now estimate the hard core of militia prepared to continue military action in the east to be between 60 and 80, based mainly in the camps of Atambua, Hakesak, Turescai and Atapupu, most of which face the Australian sector in the north of the border region.

But they are well-armed with weapons such as AK-40 and SKS assault rifles, grenades and grenade-launchers, and most have military training, some reputedly with Indonesia's Kompassus special forces.

Earlier this month, Colonel Dransfield warned of increasing hit and run attacks timed to coincide with pro-independence anniversaries.

The New Zealanders stepped up an aggressive patrolling and reconnaissance programme.

Brigadier Mateparae said it was known that rebels had infiltrated the border.

"Certainly in the early days it was one of the areas where we had some concerns about the ability of the militia to come back into East Timor."

The incident showed why New Zealand soldiers were committed to the nation's peace process, which some people were intent on destroying.

"There are individuals and small collective groups who are intent on terrorising the East Timorese and, at the end of the day, that's why we are there to help them."

But not all East Timorese support the peacekeepers and Private Manning's death was a brutally clear message that the militia intend to continue the fight against independence.

The clash was a deep blow to the UN's aim of leaving Timor with a demilitarised border with minimal frontier checks.

And it raises deep concerns over the longer-term security of the infant nation.

Foreign Minister Phil Goff said the tragic incident underscored the urgent need to disarm and disband militia groups.

He would voice New Zealand's concerns to Indonesian Foreign Minister Dr Alwi Shihab at the Asean forum meeting in Bangkok in the next couple of days,

"Dr Shihab and Indonesia must take responsibility for law, order and security in and around refugee camps in West Timor," he said.

New Zealand was concerned about the slow progress being made to resettle East Timorese from the refugee camps, which continued to provide cover for the continuing existence and activities of the militia.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was negotiating with the Indonesian Government to accelerate repatriation of refugees.

"I will be asking Dr Shihab to reach an early agreement with the UNHCR to lessen the chances of another tragedy of this nature."