Wahid pledges help over militias

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has again promised to move the refugee camps that shelter pro-Jakarta militias back from the border after reports of new shoot-to-kill orders for New Zealand and Australian peacekeepers.

Wahid gave the new assurance to Australian Prime Minister John Howard in New York during a meeting designed to help heal the diplomatic wounds of Timor and to pave the way for a repeatedly deferred visit by the Indonesian leader to Canberra.

Militias still hold refugee camps in West Timor under iron control and use them as bases for raids into the east that have killed New Zealand Private Leonard Manning and a Nepalese peacekeeper during the past two months.

This week the Thai commander of the UN peacekeeping force, Lieutenant-General Boonsrang Niumpradit, told the Sydney Morning Herald that new rules of engagement were necessary to avoid further casualties.

Under the existing rules peacekeepers must warn militiamen before they open fire, which General Boonsrang said was suicidal.

"In the jungle we are not too happy about having to shout first - then we get fired at first," he said.

"We need to be flexible, otherwise we will get our people killed."

Rampaging pro-Indonesian militiamen killed at least three foreign United Nations refugee workers in West Timor yesterday, forcing an evacuation of all foreign aid staff.

Indonesian police said hundreds of machete-wielding militiamen stormed the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Atambua, a major refugee centre near the border with United Nations-controlled East Timor.

No further details, including the nationalities of the dead, were available.

Herald Online feature: the Timor mission

UN Transitional Administration in E Timor