Timor peacekeepers kept on alert

By GREG ANSLEY in Timor

SUAI - Between Suai in the south and Balibo in the north, East Timor is bisected by thickly clad, steep-sided mountains with a striking resemblance to the West Coast of the South Island.

In the ridges and valleys that sweep down to gravel riverbeds and the Maliana Plains, New Zealand and Australian soldiers over the next two months will be working to keep the lid on an expected surge in hit-and-run raids by militia guerrillas.

Much reduced in strength but still well-armed and fanatical in their opposition to an independent East Timor, the militia have already announced their return with attacks on peacekeepers along the border region and continued threats against villagers.

While their power base remains in the refugee camps in West Timor, units have filtered back into the east through mountain trails and are believed to be living in villages sympathetic to their cause.

High in the mountains, where a section of New Zealanders live in a fortified earth-floored stone hut in the hamlet of Levos, a new observation post dominates the approaches to the east with sweeping views into West Timor.

Fortifications are being strengthened by the unit led by Lance Corporal Brett Berkett, after militia sniped at the Levos position from the cemetery above the town.

Sweeping the valley with binoculars, Lieutenant-Colonel Martyn Dransfield, the commanding officer of 2/1 Battalion Royal New Zealand Infantry, points to routes used by the infiltrators.

"I believe some have already returned," he says.

"There are numerous existing routes for attack. ... the only way we're going to win is to get on to the front foot."

At brigade headquarters in Suai, the commander of the western border sector, Australian Brigadier Duncan Lewis, notes an increase in militia attacks since June and says that, despite attempts by Indonesia to confiscate arms, too many weapons remain in the hands of the militia.

"I have no doubt that there are sufficient arms to cause trouble along the border."

This is not the massive guerrilla war promised by the militia as they fled to the west after razing East Timor in the wake of last year's independence vote.

There are too few now - the hard core prepared to continue military action is estimated to be between 60 and 80 - and while they have sympathisers in their former strongholds, most East Timorese turn them in to the peacekeepers.

Anzac troops have also stepped up patrols, working with the East Timorese both at village level and through local security councils involving village leaders, the National Council for Timorese Liberation (CNRT), neighbourhood watch-style groups, and United Nations police (Civpol).

"We're managing security comfortably with about 2500 troops in the sector - modern, well-equipped, well-trained and well-led," says Brigadier Lewis.

"I have every confidence in them."

But the militia have returned, and are expected to launch a spate of attacks over the next few weeks to coincide with a number of anniversaries important to them, and with high-profile meetings organised by the CNRT.

They are also expected to follow new tactics that emerged with the rush of attacks since June, dividing their attention between peacekeepers and the CNRT and sidestepping the attempts by other militia, led by former Dili-based Aitarak commander Herminio da Costa da Silva, to enter East Timorese politics through their own umbrella organisation, UNTAS.

"Those who eschew this [political move] pride themselves on their military stance and have decided instead to begin military operations again, probably to discredit the peacekeeping force or to convince refugees still in camps in West Timor that it is unsafe to return to East Timor," Lieutenant-Colonel Dransfield says.

The worst of the attacks so far have been directed at the Australians guarding the northern half of the border, hurling grenades at the border post of Nanura, west of Maliana, and at Aidabasalala, 15km inside East Timor.

But the militia has penetrated as far as the Ainaro district, beyond the New Zealand sector in the area controlled by Kenyan forces, whose commander, Major William Shume, was caught in a firefight.

Villagers led Major Shume and eight soldiers to five militia in a house in the village of Atsabe, but wrecked a hastily planned raid by shouting as they approached.

The militia opened fire, scattering the villagers.

In the resulting confusion, four escaped, although one was captured by the Kenyans, along with an SKS assault rifle, ammunition, and two Indonesian Army (TNI) uniforms.

Agreeing on plans to work with the New Zealanders in operations against the growing militia threat, Major Shume tells Lieutenant-Colonel Dransfield: "Now we are working together we will get them. There is no doubt."

Across the border region, peacekeeping patrols have been intensified, positions strengthened with cemented sandbags and wire mesh to deflect grenades, and infiltration routes identified and shut down.

Even so, it is believed that militia have filtered back to adopt the tactics used by the Falantil revolutionary army against the Indonesians for 25 years.

"As the Falantil will tell you, they didn't live in the hills," says Major Dan Gawn, commanding a New Zealand company in the mountain village of Lolotoe. "They lived in the villages and ran into the hills when the TNI came."

Some are known - among those suspected to be preparing for guerrilla war are the Metan brothers, hard-core militia descended from Angolan mercenaries recruited for the former Portuguese colonial army.

Finding them - and the others either living in the east or raiding from camps in the West Timor towns of Atambau, Hakesak, Turescai and Atapupu - will not be easy.

There are sympathisers prepared to hide them and the country is rugged, with some villages so isolated that 10 months after the Anzacs arrived they have only recently seen their first peacekeepers.

For East Timor, the militia have not yet become a memory.