UN Timor mission to visit Indonesia in November

NEW YORK - A Security Council delegation is expected to visit Indonesia during the week of November 13 to evaluate operations in East and West Timor, where refugees are trapped and UN peacekeepers have been attacked.

The Indonesian government last month refused to allow the ambassadors to visit Jakarta and other locations until it had an opportunity to take action against armed gangs or militia, originally organised by the Indonesian army in East Timor.

But Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab told reporters on Thursday that the council mission was welcome in mid-November because it would no longer investigate but observe Indonesian progress in disarming the militia.

"This mission will be an observance of what we have done. We want them to see with their own eyes what has been achieved by Indonesian government," he said.

US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said that Jakarta had taken an "important action in the right direction" last week when it arrested militia leader Eurico Guterres, 27, accused of inciting violence that led to the murder of three UN relief workers in Indonesian West Timor in September.

But Holbrooke said he remained "deeply concerned" about the situation in West Timor, where tens of thousands of East Timorese are intimidated by the militia.

"None of our concerns has disappeared; nor would I even say they have abated. However, we should recognise the Indonesian government is acting in the direction they said they were moving in" with the arrest of Guterres, Holbrooke said.

Foreign relief workers fled West Timor after a militia-led mob stormed an office of the UN high commissioner for refugees in the town of Atambua on September 6, killing three U.N. employees and some 20 civilians.

The militia consists of the same gangs that razed East Timor a year ago and killed hundreds of people to protest against an overwhelming vote for independence from Jakarta in a U.N.-organised ballot.

The gangs forcibly herded tens of thousands of East Timorese over the border, where they have been housed in squalid refugee camps and were fed until recently by foreign aid agencies. The gangs have conducted raids into East Timor, now under UN administration.

Shihab said the council mission would arrive in time to witness the initial stages of registering the refugees to determine who wanted to go to other parts of Indonesia and who wanted to return home.

The UNHCR has been trying to do this for a year, with promises from Jakarta to resettle people who wanted to leave Timor.

Shihab said resettling the refugees was an expensive project and he wanted donor countries "to participate and contribute in solving this problem" financially.

The minister said in answer to questions that he believed it was safe for UNHCR workers to return. Holbrooke said earlier he was not certain if there was enough security for them.

"(Holbrooke) may express doubts, but let time prove that the security is under control and we would like to see them come back and resume their activities," Shihab said.

"From New York, you cannot sense the security situation. "But I was there, and I can sense that security was under control," he said.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta told reporters earlier that the Security Council should establish an international war crimes tribunal for East Timor because Indonesia was unwilling or unable to bring to justice those responsible for last year's rampage.

Guterres, for example, is also wanted for questioning by the United Nations for his alleged role in two massacres in East Timor in April 1999.

But Indonesia said he would not be handed over to the United Nations, although U.N. investigators would be allowed to question him.

"I think our stance is clear," Shihab said. "As a sovereign nation, we can handle our problems by ourselves. We don't need any international tribunal as long as we can prove to the whole world that we can stand up to the responsibility in bringing to justice the perpetrators who violate human rights."

Holbrooke said there were not enough votes in the council to set up an international tribunal. But he said, "The arrest of Guterres is not unrelated to the fact that the international community is reviewing its decisions."

- REUTERS

Herald Online feature: the Timor mission

UN Transitional Administration in E Timor