NZ Iroquois quell Timor infiltrators

SUAI - RNZAF helicopters are flying missions against pro-Indonesian militias at the rate of about two a week as the wet season lifts along the troubled border with West Timor.

Four Iroquois are based at Suai, close to the border, with Kiowa helicopters of the Australian Army's 161 Reconaissance Squadron.

Armed with heavy machine-guns, the helicopters of both forces fly troops of the immediate response group in bids to head off small militia units infiltrating into East Timor in a continuing campaign that led last month to a grenade attack on Australian troops to the north.

Working with United Nations civilian police, the New Zealand soldiers guarding the southern half of the border are also weeding out alleged militia members returning with a flow of refugees that has increased with the end of the wet season.

Many refugees waited across the border until crops were ready to harvest and damaged roads and bridges to their villages further east were repaired.

The acting commanding officer of the 3 Squadron Iroquois, Flight Lieutenant Russ Mardon, said yesterday that his helicopters were being called to militia alerts about twice a week.

He said intelligence suggested that some parts of the border area were more susceptible to militia infiltration because of lingering sympathies.

In the alerts the Australian Kiowas flew ahead of the Iroquois to scout landing places and to protect the landing of troops held on permanent stand-by for militia incursions.

Although no New Zealand helicopters had been fired upon, Australian aircraft came under fire late last year and Flight Lieutenant Mardon said pilots remained aware of the danger.

"You feel quite vulnerable up front," he said.

"We have procedures in place to minimise the threat to us, but it's always at the back of your mind."

So far, militia infiltrators have fled at the approach of the helicopters.

"They don't like them, that's for sure," Flight Lieutenant Mardon said. "They're quite scared of them."

He said the militiamen also had appeared to have changed tactics, moving at night and staying under cover during the day.