Indonesia willing to disarm Timor militias

3:00 PM

JAKARTA - Indonesia's police chief says the country is ready to disarm the pro-Jakarta gangs who butchered three U.N. aid workers last week near the troubled border between East and West Timor.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday unanimously demanded Indonesia disarm and disband the militias immediately.

"We have strengthened (the number of) security forces there in Atambua...(their) duty is to disarm the militias. We have the basic law to do that," national police chief General Rusdihardjo told reporters.

Atambua, in Indonesian West Timor, was the center for international relief efforts for the more than 120,000 East Timorese still living in camps across the border after their homeland voted a year ago to break from 23 years of Jakarta rule.

The United Nations closed its West Timor operations after pro-Jakarta militiamen murdered three international workers with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Atambua last week.

The killings triggered intense international pressure on Jakarta to rein in the militias who operate with near impunity around the refugee camps.

Analysts say failure to act now risks international retaliation, possibly through sanctions or delays in the aid Indonesia relies on to stay afloat.

And Defense Secretary William Cohen, arriving in Jakarta on Sunday, will carry "a strong message" from President Clinton to Indonesian leaders they must bring the military under control and disband the militias.

A senior Defense Department official said Cohen would make clear Jakarta risks continued security isolation from Washington if it fails.

But Jakarta has done little so far, apart from arresting 15 people over Wednesday's bloodshed.

Chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general, on Monday even implied the government believed the militia problem had been dealt with.

"The armed forces commander just explained that the militias have been disbanded since 1999 and that more than 600 weapons were seized. However, there are reports that now say the militias still exist and have weapons...," Yudhoyono said.

He was speaking after attending a meeting with President Abdurrahman Wahid, Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, armed forces chief Widodo and Rusdihardjo.

Indonesia has previously shown little interest in breaking up the militias.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia wanted to resolve the issue, but called on the international community to base its opinions on facts on the ground.

"We will not be defensive, but Indonesia wants this problem looked at in a clear, honest and objective manner," he said.

Wahid has expressed his regrets over last week's killings and said the attack was designed to humiliate him. But he has said little publicly about disarming the gangs.

It was the militias, with the backing of Indonesia's military, who a year ago went on a rampage of destruction and murder in East Timor, forcing more than a third of the population into misery as refugees just across the border.

Analysts said the slaying of the aid workers and several West Timorese civilians last week showed how little command the military has over the militias and even some of its own troops.

It also underlines the leadership crisis of Wahid, who faces a raft of political and economic woes.

U.N. officials in East Timor say they are now bracing for a flood of returning refugees, panicked by the spreading militia violence.

The United Nations has warned of food shortages among refugees left helpless by the evacuation of the aid workers.

There are unconfirmed reports, denied by the Indonesian military, that 20 other people were killed in West Timor in a separate incident last week.

In Jakarta on Monday, the Attorney-General's office summoned three suspects in its investigation into last year's violence in East Timor following the independence vote.

One was a colonel who was briefly the local military chief at the time.

Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman said more people could be declared suspects beyond the 19 already named.

"Disclosures and investigations may go further and at one point may also cover those who were responsible for policies," he told reporters when asked about the possibility of then-armed forces chief General Wiranto or notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres could be charged.

The prosecution of both is seen as vital to Indonesia's efforts to punish those responsible being seen internationally as credible.

- REUTERS

Herald Online feature: the Timor mission

UN Transitional Administration in E Timor