•  Ships sail to East Timor amid new killings
•  Refugees returning to charred homes
•  Soldiers, militiamen, laying mines in Dili
•  Refugees dumped in shark-infested waters
•  Revealed: the plot to crush Timor
•  Agent reveals reconciliation 'charade'
•  Crimes against humanity evidence
•  Western districts off limits to UN
•  Ministry gave media training to militia
•  Refugees hunted throughout Indonesia
•  Dita Sari discusses East Timor
•  Euro-MPs demand recognition of Timor
•  Belo's aide implicates top general
•  Fears that Darwin refugees infiltrated
•  Militias now fear Indonesian troops
•  Interview with Alan Narn in Dili
•  Little hope for the best in plan for the worst
•  Rape used as a systematic torture
•  Militia terror stalks refugees across border
•  Troops fire on women's refugee camp
•  Jakarta backs down
•  Slaughter linked to militia, soldiers
•  Horror worse than UN believes
•  Military behind bloodshed: UN official

•  Aceh, Ambon learn cost of resisting Jakarta
•  'Special autonomy' plan for Aceh

•  Jakarta cave-in sparks anger
•  PAN and PKB reject state security bill
•  Jakarta severs security ties with Canberra
•  Tension in Jakarta
•  Wiranto may quit to run for president
•  Investigators uncover indications of fraud
•  UK ministers under fire over deals
•  Indonesian leader voices 'feelings'

Students return to parliament to protest

Jakarta -- Some 2,000 Indonesian students on Friday converged on the national parliament to protest against a draft security law and demand a trial of former president Suharto.

Some 1,500 students marched towards the parliament from the Jayabaya private university in in South Jakarta about one kilometre southeast of the legislative complex.

But they were held back by a cordon of fully armed soldiers and riot police units under a flyover some 200 metres before the parliament.

"Fundamental freedom will be oppressed with the State security draft bill," one of the posters carried by the protestors said. Another poster called "Reject the draft bill on security."

They were shortly after joined by some 500 students from the Pancasila University and another 200 students from the City Forum pro-reform student movement.

The students came to protest the draft bill which many have criticized as being even sterner that an anti-subversion law which was revoked earlier this year.

Earlier on Friday, a group of some 50 students from the Alliance for Students and Youths managed to approach the front gate of the parliament to demand the quick settlement of the Bank Bali scandal. They were later told to leave by some 30 armed policemen and they moved to the rear side of the parliamentary complex.

Students protest against military power

Surabaya -- Hundreds of Indonesian students protested in the country's second largest city on Thursday against a controversial draft security bill which they say would increase the power of the military.

Some 600 demonstrators gathered in front of two local government offices in the commercial city of Surabaya, 700 km east of Jakarta.

"For 32 years the military have been a political power in the new order regime and now they want to retain their power," said a student identifying himself only as Ucok.

"The enhancement of this law has to stopped, otherwise we will be the ones rejecting it," he said. Protesters carried banners calling for a cut in the military's pervasive presence in Indonesia. "Military out of the economy, society and politics," said one sign.

The bill allows the president to declare a state of emergency in troublespots and delegate authority to the military which is given enhanced power to handle threats to state security, including the power to take over all mail and electronic means of communication.

Opponents of the bill have said that they are concerned that it would provide a legal framework for the Indonesian military to clamp down on the press and stifle reform.

Some see the bill as an attempt by the military to preserve their influence at a time when the once-untouchable institution is coming under increasing criticism.

The draft bill has caused an uproar among many pacifists and intellectuals and has provoked a series of protests over the last month.

Students wounded in clashes with military

Jakarta -- Protests erupted here Wednesday as the UN approved sending troops to East Timor, with security forces opening fire outside the UN building at students protesting Indonesian military atrocities.

Across town, however, groups demonstrating against Australia's involvement in the multinational force were allowed to picket its embassy and Indonesia's defence ministry without interference.

At least three were injured in the protest outside the UN building in downtown Jakarta, and one was in serious condition with a bullet wound, police and demonstrators said.

Others were injured when riot police chased them with sticks. Police said only rubber bullets had been used to fire warning shots.

About 60 protestors had been trying to march to the defence ministry to protest military "genocide" in East Timor and the province of Aceh, plagued by separatist unrest. Police blocked their path and they staged their rally in front of the UN building instead.

Violence also erupted near the parliament when the troops ploughed into some 150 student demonstrators with sticks and their boots after they were pelted with molotov cocktails.

Witnesses said at least three demonstrators were beaten and kicked by the security forces and seven were arrested. The rest were chased further away from the parliament building where they re-grouped.

"One protestor was badly injured and I took a doctor to the police post where the victim was taken to," said Gunawan Muhamad, a former chief editor of Indonesia's leading Tempo weekly magazine. He was later hauled away by police to the Jakarta police headquarters.

The protesters had marched from the city's west to within 100 metres of the parliament, where they were blocked by a human barricade of about 100 police and soldiers.

They were protesting a draft bill on state security, currently being debated in parliament, which critics say is no better than the draconian laws brought in under former strongman Suharto.

Banners reading "Beware of the military threat" and "The state security bill is intended for a military coup" were held aloft. But the gathering turned ugly when molotov cocktails were hurled from the midst of the students, landing near the troops who ran to extinguish them.

Gunawan said he was unsure why he was brought to the police post. He said he had addressed the protestors but only to tell them to disperse. "I do not know whether I am being arrested or not," he said by telephone from the police headquarters.

Warning shots and teargas were fired Tuesday as hundreds of students clashed with security forces at two separate locations in East Jakarta over the same issue, leaving several injured and at least two cars burned.

Meanwhile, pro-government demonstrations were staged outside the Australian embassy, the British embassy and the defence ministry, AFP reporters and television reports said. At the British embassy some 30 pro-Indonesia East Timorese denounced Britain for protecting independence leader Xanana Gusmao, who has been living in the mission since being released from a jail house on September 7.

The protest, during which they burned the flag of the East Timorese Resistance Council which Gusmao heads, broke up in chaos when protestors, police and journalists alike chased provocateurs in the crowd.

A larger group of some 120 pro-Indonesian East Timorese picketed the Australian embassy for several hours under the watchful eye of police, but there were no major incidents, an embassy official said. The protestors, who have staged successive rallies outside the mission, charge Canberra with interference in East Timor.

Television reports said another group of pro-Indonesian East Timorese, unlike the students, were allowed to protest outside the defence ministry against Australia's presence in the peacekeeping force which it will lead.
 

East Timor

Ships sail to East Timor amid new killings

Reuters - September 18, 1999

The European Commission said up to 200 people might have been killed on Friday in a continuation of the blood-letting which has swept the territory since it voted for independence from Indonesia.

Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao on Saturday left Jakarta and was believed to be heading for Darwin, northern Australia. The Portuguese news agency Lusa quoted a Timorese resistance source as saying Gusmao was likely to attend a meeting of Timorese resistance officials in Darwin.

East Timor's devastated capital Dili was quiet on Saturday, a source with the International Committee of the Red Cross said. Gunfire could still be heard overnight and fires seen in hills around the city, where military sources say 30,000 pro- independence refugees are sheltering.

UN force commander Australian Major-General Peter Cosgrove and his 13-member advance team were due to arrive in Dili at 1pm on Sunday and stay for three hours, the Indonesian commander in Dili said.

Cosgrove's visit is expected to be followed by the deployment of the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) troops, spearheaded by some 2,000 Australians and 250 Gurkhas of the British army.

The full UN deployment is expected in about two days. Troops will arrive by air and sea from Darwin. A total of about 8,000 personnel from around the world are expected to eventually join the mission.

Ten tonnes of emergency food rations were dropped to refugees in East Timor on Saturday, Australian aid agency Ausaid said. Clearance was received for two flights on Monday to make drops from high altitude, distributing food over a wider area, a World Food Programme spokeswoman said.

UN Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) spokesman David Wimhurst said "massive amounts" of additional aid were needed for the hundreds of thousands of refugees believed to have fled violence by pro-Indonesia militias in recent weeks.

The anti-independence militias have threatened to attack the international force. Across Indonesia, tens of thousands of Moslems have signed up for a holy war against UN-backed forces, religious leaders said.

Heads of Indonesia's largest Moslem mass organisation in East Java province said they were prepared for such a "jihad". "The call for jihad against foreign intervention in East Timor should be understood as a spontaneous heroism," said Hasyim Muzadi, head of the Nadhlatul Ulama in East Java. "The anger of Indonesian people is not only directed at Australia, but also especially at the United States." East Timor independence leader Gusmao said in a BBC interview on Saturday he feared rogue elements of the Indonesian military might attack peacekeepers.

Refugees returning to charred homes

Joanna Jolly in Darwin and Irwan Firdaus of Associated Press in Baucau -- As international troops prepare to go into East Timor, fearful refugees are coming down from the mountains in the territory and returning to homes still smouldering and in ruins.

When the peacekeepers arrive in East Timor they will find a hostile, difficult terrain still largely in the control of pro- autonomy militia despite a heavy presence of Indonesian soldiers (TNI).

Witness reports from Dili yesterday said although the situation was calmer than a few days ago, with less shooting heard on the streets, militia were still in evidence in the capital.

But they appeared to be involved in an organised operation to remove as much looted property as they could from the territory before the deployment of the international force.

"Militia appear to be moving out of town with cargo," said a member of the 12-member United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor (Unamet) team still operating in Dili.

"There are fewer gangs of militia. A lot are protecting cargo trucks and coming back to reload." The Unamet team was able to carry out a patrol through the city yesterday and check on the situation of refugees sheltering at the dock. They reported that there were still several fires burning and shots being fired, but there was a decrease in violent activity.

Unamet reported yesterday that TNI was patrolling the streets to secure areas of Dili. "They are working professionally and appear to be doing proper patrol formations," the Unamet staff member said.

East Timor's second-largest town, Bacau, has begun showing signs of life again. Vendors squatted on the street outside the gutted market to sell vegetables, fruit and cigarettes.

"No one thought it would happen like this," said Bishop Basilio da Nascimento, still stunned at the violence that followed East Timor's vote for independence. Hundreds of Indonesian troops were flown out yesterday in advance of the arrival of an Australia-led international peacekeeping force.

But enough troops remained behind to maintain order in Baucau, 200km east of Dili. Knots of soldiers were posted every few hundred metres along Baucau's main road. New units replaced soldiers implicated in the unrest, helping restore confidence among townspeople.

"I have stopped the firing by everybody, including the police, militia and ordinary people, and now the situation is calm," said Colonel Irwan Kusnadi, the operations commander for Baucau.

Soldiers, militiamen, laying mines in Dili

Lisbon -- Indonesian soldiers and militiamen are laying mines in Dili, the capital of East Timor, as they stream out of the province ahead of the arrival of a multinational peace force, a resistance leader told Portuguese radio Friday.

Leandro Isaac, a leader of the Timoran Resistance National Council, warned the Australian-led force to be careful. He told Lisbon's TSF radio station by telephone from a mountain hideout close to Dili that the soldiers were laying the mines before leaving.

In a separate interview with the Portuguese news agency Lusa, Isaac said the soldiers and militiamen were moving south toward Dare, where tens of thousands of displaced civilians have taken shelter. "They are firing rifles and submachine-guns continuously, advancing rapidly towards the displaced persons," he said.

Refugees dumped in shark-infested waters

Macau -- A former pro-Jakarta militiaman has claimed that Indonesian forces eliminated more than 2,000 East Timorese by dumping them in waters off the East Timor coast.

Contacted by the newspaper "Macau Hoje", Francisco Domingues said he "accompanied Indonesian marines transporting 120 East Timorese in a front-loading military craft". The passengers were thrown into shark-infested waters near the coast town of Batugade, he stated.

Domingues told the Macau daily that he escaped to Indonesian West Timor because he "couldn't take another such cargo" of East Timorese. "Six vessels were taking men out to the sea: two in Batugade, two in Baucau and two in Manatuto", he added.

Revealed: the plot to crush Timor

Anne-Marie Evans, Macau -- The political cleansing of East Timor was planned as early as February, one of the militia leaders present at a meeting which hatched the deadly plot has revealed. Tomas Goncalves, 54, the former head of the 400-strong PPPI (Peace Force and Defender of Integration) militia said the killings had been agreed at a meeting on February 16 in the East Timorese capital, Dili. He said the talks were organised by the head of the SGI, the secret intelligence organisation of the military's Kopassus special forces.

The head, Lieutenant-Colonel Yahyat Sudrajad, called for the killing of pro-independence movement leaders, their children and even their grandchildren, Mr Goncalves said. Not a single member of their families was to be left alive, the colonel told the meeting.

Mr Goncalves said that also present were the heads of other militias covering the 12 regions of East Timor, including Eurico Guterres, of the Aitarak militia, and Joao Tavares of Besi Merah Putih.

According to Mr Goncalves, the colonel said many soldiers had died in East Timor and that it would be difficult for troops to leave the enclave because if they did, they would lose face. They were determined not to abandon their supporters in the territory.

The meeting came after President Bacharuddin Habibie announced on January 27 that he might consider independence for East Timor.

On February 11, a day after resistance leader Xanana Gusmao was moved from jail to house arrest, Mr Habibie said East Timor's future could be decided by the end of the year. Mr Goncalves said: "The agenda for the meeting included funding and arming of the militias, food and other supplies."

His revelations leave no doubt about the connection between Jakarta and the militias, or about the direct line of command.

Mr Goncalves said Colonel Sudrajad had received orders before the meeting from regional military commander Colonel Tono Suratman, who was answerable to General Adam Daimiri in command of Bali, East Timor and West Timor. General Daimiri in turn answered to General Zacky Anwar in Jakarta, himself the former head of Kabia, Indonesia's national intelligence body.

The meeting set the hour for the start of the political cleansing as midnight on May 1. However, on February 17, the following day, the militias began to kill throughout East Timor, launching attacks in Maliana, Atabai, Kailako and elsewhere. The survivors fled to churches and priests' houses for protection.

On March 26, Governor of East Timor Abilio Soares gave orders at a meeting, again attended by Mr Goncalves, that the priests and nuns should be killed.

Mr Goncalves said: "I could not stand it. I told them I have no problem fighting the [pro-independence] guerillas, but as a Catholic I could not kill priests and nuns and attack the Church." Because of his stand, Mr Goncalves came under suspicion. He fled Jakarta on April 18 and is now in Macau.

Violence worsened dramatically in East Timor after the result of the UN-organised ballot was announced on September 4, showing support for independence. Hundreds, possibly thousands of people were killed by the militias, encouraged or helped by troops. Government and military spokesmen were unavailable for comment last night.

Agent reveals reconciliation 'charade'

Anne-Marie Evans, Macau -- Rui Lopes could count former president Suharto's son-in-law, Prabowo Subianto, and General Gleny in Jakarta among his closest friends.

They have been fighting and working together since the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. Since 1985, Mr Lopes, 47, had also been working for Xanana Gusmao's resistance guerillas.

Yesterday he revealed the extent of the Indonesian military's plans for the political cleansing of East Timor, and for the arrival of foreign peacekeepers.

While "reconciliation" meetings were being organised throughout East Timor this spring between pro-Jakarta militia chiefs and bishops and pro-independence leaders, a massive military build-up was taking place over the border, the East Timorese agent said in Macau.

At least 20 battalions -- a total of 15,000 soldiers -- were stationed in West Timor by June. Some were in Tamrasi and had a secret base in a mountain called Laser, which the Australian military had also used as a clandestine refuge during World War II. The Indonesian military brought in a sophisticated radar from Bandung, West Java, that could track ships in the South Sea.

Marines and tanks were taken to the Indonesian island of Kisar, off the eastern tip of East Timor. These had now been driven up through Lospalos in East Timor, Mr Lopes said. "They prepared all this," he said, "because they knew the Australians would intervene."

A strategic triangle was set up. There were bases at Balibo on the West Timor border; Kupang, the West Timor capital, would be used for the refugees coming in after the cleansing; and military training was carried out in Atambua, just inside West Timor. Troops would go to the border at night to spy, dressed as civilians.

Mr Lopes was president of a pro-autonomy campaign based in Suai, East Timor. He was trusted enough to attend an annual meeting in Austria organised by the United Nations to bring about reconciliation between the two sides. Mr Lopes arrived in Macau on Saturday after fleeing Jakarta.

Crimes against humanity evidence

Compere: Which brings us to the war crimes issue more generally. And fresh evidence is emerging of the Indonesian military's complicity in the crimes against humanity in East Timor. The Senate Committee on East Timor heard first-hand accounts today of TNI links with the militias that rampaged through the country before and after the referendum. Karon Snowdon reports:

Karon Snowdon: There's an urgency to collect credible eye witness accounts of the atrocities which took place in East Timor and to identify who was directly responsible. The Senate Committee heard today from Garry Wood, a former member of the Australian Federal Police and now a consultant to UNAMET. His account of the siege of a Dili hotel confirms what we already know of the blind eye turned on militia activity by the Indonesian forces.

Garry Wood: I stood on the roof and I saw at different stages militia come in around four separate cordons of some hundreds of police and military from four different levels of command come in and shoot at the building and have people run around that building with machetes. I can only say that it had to have been orchestrated.

Karon Snowdon: And a report from BBC correspondent, Humphrey Hawkesley, printed in London's Independent Newspaper, claims officials in West Timor say they were ordered to set up camps to handle thousands of people at least four days ahead of East Timor's referendum. From just how high up the chain of command the orders came will be up to the proposed International War Crimes Tribunal to prove.

Opposition spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Laurie Brereton, says Australia must hand over its military intelligence which he claims will prove the links to the highest Indonesian command.

Laurie Brereton: Australia will have all of -- a great deal of detailed knowledge, just as NATO had an enormous amount of knowledge of the atrocities committed in the former republic of Yugoslavia.

Karon Snowdon: When asked on last night's 7.30 Report whether he supported the UN's determination to establish a War Crimes Tribunal for East Timor, Prime Minister, John Howard, was cautious.

John Howard: Well, look, I support any of the UN processes but, I mean, my main focus at the moment is the more immediate one of getting people in as quickly as possible, because as soon as that occurs, you automatically reduce the possibility of further things being done.

Karon Snowdon: Colonel Bob Lowry from the Australian Defence Study Centre agrees the timing is the thing.

Bob Lowry: There are some risks in the short-term. That's what we've got to be careful of, that it doesn't impede the process of getting the UN force on the ground and the co-operation between the Indonesian troops and the UN force in the first instance, and that it doesn't give ammunition to the hawks in Jakarta to maybe try and forestall the transition to democracy or indeed to mount a coup.

Karon Snowdon: But another view holds that Australia would be reluctant to hand over any intelligence. Lecturer in International Relations at Deakin University, Scott Burchell, believes the diplomatic cost to Australia would be considered too high. I asked him what military intelligence Laurie Brereton was hinting at.

Scott Burchell: I would imagine it would be phone calls that have been recorded, intercepted and recorded.

Karon Snowdon: Australia routinely collects or listens to Indonesian phone calls?

Scott Burchell: Absolutely, particularly as far as foreign and defence intelligence sources is concerned. Australia keeps a very close ear on all military conversations that are taking place between Jakarta and its deployment in East Timor.

Karon Snowdon: And you think that would be the evidence that would be needed?

Scott Burchell: Well, that would be crucial in providing enough information to indict someone as senior as General Wiranto.

Karon Snowdon: How much guess work on your part is involved in assuming that this intelligence would reveal those links?

Scott Burchell: Not very much. We've already had leaks from the Defence Intelligence Organisation earlier this year which clearly stated that Australian intelligence sources were aware that the militias were being orchestrated from senior levels of the TNI, right up to and including General Wiranto.

Western districts off limits to UN

Jakarta -- The deputy commander of East Timor's pro-Indonesia militia has warned that the militia will put eight of the territory's 13 districts off limits to multinational troops, a report said Thursday.

Deputy Commander Eurico Guterres said that the militia will offer an agenda to the multinational forces of the United Nations dictating what it has to do, the Antara news agency said.

"I will propse an agenda to the peacekeeping force about what has to be done. If they don't want to go along [with the agenda], I will demark the boundaryline, which region can be managed by the UN peacekeeping forces and which regions they cannot," Guterres said in Kupang, West Timor.

He claimed that the militias controlled eight districts in the western part of East Timor and that the United Nations could manage the remaining five in the east.

The western districts are the agriculturally-productive regions while the east is mostly arid and dry land. Guterres had already aired a plan to divide East Timor into two, saying that the pro- Indonesians would not leave their alleged strongholds.

Antara quoted Guterres as saying that the militias, as native East Timorese, had more rights over the territory than the UN peacekieeping forces. He also expressed worries that the presence of the multinational force would worsen, rather than improve the situation in East Timor.

Guterres heads the Dili-based Aitarak militia which has been balmed for the widespread destruction of the East Timorese capital, the killings and burning as well as the forced trucking of East Timorese to neighbouring West Timor.

The United Nations Wednesday approved a multinational force for East Timor, under the leadership of Australia, with a broad mandate to take every measure to halt the violence and get vital aid to thousands of starving refugees.

Ministry gave media training to militia

Hong Kong -- The Indonesian foreign ministry organized and paid for leaders of the pro-Indonesian militia in East Timor to be trained in public relations ahead of the recent election, the Far Eastern Economic Review said Wednesday.

It cites ministry officials as saying privately that at least two seminars on public and media relations were organized by the Indonesian government ahead of the August 30 independence referendum.

The seminars, held in Bali, included coaching on how to field awkward questions from the foreign media, the Review said. "They were said to cost the Indonesian government about 500 million rupiah," the weekly said in a statement.

Speakers at the seminars included senior government officials, military officers and leaders of the pro-Indonesia militias that have since been accused by humanitarian organizations of playing a major role in the violence in East Timor.

"At one seminar, according to the ministry officials, General Adam Daimiri, the senior military officer for East Timor at the time, told the militias that Indonesia 'was behind them 100 percent and would never abandon them,'" the Review said. Asked by the Review about the seminars, a foreign ministry official said no assistance was given to the militias by the ministry but that it had close relations with them.

Refugees hunted throughout Indonesia

Sydney -- Pro-Jakarta militia are harassing East Timorese refugees throughout the eastern islands of Indonesia, an Australian aid agency said Thursday.

Janet Hunt, executive director of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA), said the situation was dangerous in Flores, Lombok and Bali -- a popular holiday spot.

"There are militias in those places," she told reporters. "They have [death] lists and they are seeking these people [refugees]. The people who are in hiding are on the move, mainly. They are not staying in the same house or hotel two nights."

Hunt urged the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to open an office in Bali. "We are asking the UNHCR to establish an office in Bali so that those who have already left Kupang [in West Timor] can have access to help," she said.

She claimed the militia had lists of particular people that they wanted to see dead. "They are also targeting some of the religious people, some of the brothers, sisters and priests, who have come out with the Timorese," she said. "It is getting increasingly difficult." ACFOA is an umbrella group of Australian aid agencies.

Dita Sari discusses East Timor

[Dita Sari, the workers leader who was released from prison in July this year after serving three years of a five-year sentence, is now in the UK at the invitation of the TUC. She gave this interview to Tapol before departing for Brighton yesterday.]

Q. What was the impact in Indonesia of the result of the referendum in East Timor?

A. The 78.5 percent vote in favour of independence came as a great shock, something quite unbelievable. Many people were very angry when the results were announced. They found it very difficult to accept that the East Timorese want to leave the Republic, and they directed their anger against Habibie for having given them the option to decide.

Very few people in Indonesia support the idea of independence for East Timor. In the first days after the result was announced, even some NGOs that are members of the solidarity organisation Solidamor could not bring themselves to support the result and did not want to take any action. But this is what my party, the PRD, did.

We went to the UN office in Jakarta to deliver a statement making three points: we supported the results of the referendum, we called for the withdrawal of Indonesian troops from East Timor and we called for intervention by an international peace-keeping force.

The referendum result provoke a lot of nationalistic sentiments and there were protest demonstrations outside the Australian embassy against Australian intervention on the question of East Timor.

Q. What has been the response of the political parties?

A. Like many other parties, Megawati's party, the PDI-P, has used the referendum result to attack Habibie as part of her efforts to defeat him in the contest for the presidency later this year. She has accused Habibie of acting unlawfully for allowing the East Timor people to choose and said this should not have happened before the meeting of the newly-elected MPR which takes place later this year.

As for Gus Dur who leads the Nahdlatul Ulama, his first response was to accuse UNAMET of being unfair and he said that the results had been rigged. But after a few days, his position shifted somewhat.

Q. What was it that brought about this shift?

A. There has been as gradual shift in public perceptions. The Indonesian press has reported in great detail on the international reaction to the events of the past ten days. East Timor has been frontpage news in all the newspapers every day with many reports about international outrage at what has been happening and this has helped to bring about a shift in public perceptions about East Timor.

Press reporting has played a significant role in breaking up old prejudices about how well Indonesia has treated East Timor. People are beginning to see the question in a different light. Statements made by President Clinton condemning the situation in East Timor have also had a powerful impact on public opinion.

I have to say that the Indonesian press has played a very good role in informing people. Some Indonesian journalists put their own lives at risk to follow events in East Timor, although they were eventually forced to leave the country.

A few days ago, Kompas published an editorial commenting on the threat of economic sanctions because of the situation in East Timor. It said that when considering our attitude towards East Timor, we must also consider its impact on other political issues such as economic stability. This has also helped to bring about a shift in attitudes. Kompas is the largest circulation paper in the country and it is widely read so its views are important in molding public opinion.

Q. Have any of the major parties seen this as an issue of the right of the people of East Timor to self-determination?

A. No. Although they say that they will accept the result, this is only because there was a majority in favour of independence. It has nothing to do with East Timor's right to self- determination. East Timor is being used as a political football in moves by people to get rid of Habibie later this year.

Q. Dont people see any similarity between East Timor's struggle for independence and Indonesia's struggle against the Dutch in the 1940s?

A. No, not really. For years, the Indonesian people have been told that in 1975, East Timor was in danger of falling into the clutches of the communists. They were also led to believe that Indonesia was in East Timor because the East Timorese asked to be integrated into Indonesia. This distortion of history is still very strongly embedded in the minds of most people.

Q. Has the news from East Timor helped in any way to strengthen opposition to the armed forces and its dwi-fungsi ideology?

A. I don't think so. Of course, there is a great deal of anger towards the armed forces. It is clear to everyone that they are incapable of handling situations of unrest anywhere in the country, such as Ambon, Aceh, West Kalimantan or anywhere else.

But in the case of East Timor, people see this as involving the loss of part of Indonesia's territory and blame Habibie for suggesting that a referendum should be held. It's all his fault. They are not blaming the armed forces.

Q. What has been Wiranto's role in instigating the campaign of violence by the army-backed militias?

A. He has been in charge all along. He knows all about the arming and training of the militias. There's no doubt about that. But the problem is that their activities are now totally out of control. His hopes of imposing some kind of discipline on the operations have been futile. The main target of these operations was supposed to be the CNRT but things went beyond that, doing absolutely crazy things like attacking Bishop Belo.

Then he thought that he could bring things under control by imposing martial law but that hasn't worked either.

Q. Habibie has just announced that Indonesia will allow an international peace-keeping force into East Timor. How does this reflect on Habibie and Wiranto?

A. I think that this was an easy decision for Habibie to take, but it is very humiliating for Wiranto and the armed forces.

Q. And why do you think that there has been a campaign of such widespread killing and destruction in East Timor since the result of the referendum became known?

A. The pro-Jakarta militias and their supporters decided to take revenge on the people of East Timor. Their logic is: we are going to lose East Timor so we want to make sure that you won't get anything either.

Euro-MPs demand recognition of Timor

Strasbourg -- Deputies at the European parliament on Thursday passed a resolution demanding that the European Union (EU) and its member states recognise an independent East Timor.

The parliament "recognises the freely and democratically expressed will of the people of East Timor to be independent and to create their own country," the resolution said of the restive Indonesian province.

The MEPs also condemned the "massacres committed by pro- Indonesian militias with the complicity of the Indonesian police and army" since East Timor residents vote overwhelmingly for independence in a UN-sponsored referendum August 30. The resolution called on the United Nations to draw up a full list of atrocities that have been committed in East Timor, and expressed support for the suggestion by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson to set up an ad hoc international tribunal.

The UN Security Council voted early Wednesday to send a multinational peacekeeping force to restore security to East Timor.

Belo's aide implicates top general

Philip Cornford -- An assistant to East Timor's spiritual leader, Bishop Carlos Belo, claimed yesterday that he saw the Indonesian intelligence official Major-General Syafrie Syamsuddin direct the separation of boys and men from refugees forced from Bishop Belo's home 11 days ago.

Mr Francisco Kalbuadi, chairman of the Bishop Belo Foundation, said he was present when Indonesian soldiers arrested Bishop Belo 11 days ago and fired on 5,000 refugees who had sought sanctuary in the grounds of the bishop's home in Dili.

Bishop Belo was eventually allowed to fly to Darwin, but the women and children who had sheltered at his home were transported to West Timor, where Mr Kalbuadi said they were being held as hostages.

Speaking in Sydney yesterday, Mr Kalbuadi said the operation was commanded by General Syamsuddin, "who I know personally and who I saw standing in the street outside the compound, giving orders". He had seen a baby and an old woman killed by bullets. "Many others were shot."

He escaped when General Syamsuddin ordered that men and boys of military age be separated from the women and children. "I knew that meant the men were going to be killed," Mr Kalbuadi said. Later, when he escaped to West Timor, the women refugees said the males taken from Bishop Belo's home had disappeared. "General Syamsuddin is responsible for their fate," he said. "It is certain they were murdered."

Mr Kalbuadi said he escaped after a militia leader risked his life by handing over his jacket in the pro-Indonesian colours of red and white.

Dennis Schulz reports from Darwin: Refugees evacuated from Dili gave further details yesterday of mass murders by the Indonesian military. Joao Brito, 15, recounted through an interpreter the murder of perhaps hundreds of people in Ermera on September 4, the day the autonomy ballot results were announced.

An hour after the announcement two trucks full of Kopassus special forces arrived in Ermera, a stronghold of the Aitarak militia, dressed in black Aitarak T-shirts. The soldiers, armed with automatic weapons and cans of petrol, had targeted known pro-independence supporters.

"They called house to house and they burnt out the political leaders," Joao said. "When the houses burn, they let the women and children out, but they push the men back into the fire, where they die."

Joao said the rampaging group marched through the town burning and shooting people and slashing them with machetes. During the slaughter, the killers had openly shown the delight with their work, he said. "They say, `You dogs. You do not have the right to independence'."

Joao and nine others were rescued by nearby pro-independence Falintil guerillas, who were alerted when smoke began to rise from the town.

[In a September 17 report in the South China Morning Post, Kalbuadi also named two other officers as being responsible for the terror, former military intelligence chief Zacky Anwar and Brigadier-General Glenn Kairupan as being responsible for the terror - James Balowski.]

Fears that Darwin refugees infiltrated

Bernard Lagan, Darwin -- Two suspected East Timorese militia members and a suspected Indonesian soldier are being held by Australian authorities after infiltrating the UN compound in Dili and being flown by the RAAF with 1400 refugees to Darwin.

The men were plucked from the East Timorese reception centre on the outskirts of Darwin early yesterday after some refugees told staff the men would be killed in Darwin.

They were taken away by Northern Territory police to an undisclosed location and were last night still being interviewed by police and Australian immigration officials. A spokeswoman for the Northern Territory Police said two of the men had been identified by refugees in Darwin as members of the notorious Aitarak militia, held responsible in East Timor for scores of killings and attacks upon pro-Independence East Timorese.

The UNAMET spokesman, Mr David Wimhurst, said in Darwin yesterday that the three men were believed to have infiltrated the UN compound in Dili where about 1400 refugees were sheltering from militias and the Indonesian army.

When the refugees were transported to Darwin in Tuesday's dawn RAAF airlift, the suspected militias and the soldier were included. Their presence was drawn to the attention of East Timorese social workers working with the refugees after they arrived in Darwin.

"They have been isolated and they are being held separately by the authorities in a safe location," Mr Wimhurst said. "The allegations that two are militia are being investigated," he said. "This is now entirely in the hands of Australian authorities. If they are indeed members of the militia, it's very possible they infiltrated the UN compound in Dili and were carried out with the rest of the refugees."

Mr Wimhurst said it would have been too difficult to conduct screening checks on the refugees before the airlift to Darwin.

UN officials said later yesterday that the two men identified as militia were behaving aggressively towards Australian authorities who were attempting to establish their identities.

The third man, identified as an Indonesian army soldier, was with a family group of 10 who had been in the compound. Members of the alleged soldier's family have also been removed from the main body of refugees because of fears for their safety.

Refugees in the Darwin centre said last night that one of those suspected as a militia member was a high-ranked deputy commander in the Aitarak militia, known in Dili as "Elvis".

A refugee spokesman, Mr Sebastico Guterres, said last night he hoped refugees in Darwin would act with restraint against the three men if they were freed.

Militias now fear Indonesian troops

Dennis Schulz and Louise Williams -- Pro-Indonesian militias are fleeing East Timor ahead of the arrival of peacekeepers, some saying they fear they will now be killed by Indonesian troops to wipe out evidence of Jakarta's leading role in the carnage.

Refugees in Darwin and church sources working in West Timor, where about 130,000 refugees have been forced into militia- controlled camps, reported new fears that Indonesian troops would kill militia members themselves, after using the thugs to kill independence supporters, priests, nuns and civilians.

"The Indonesian Army wants to exterminate the militia because they want to take away all trace," said a refugee from Dili, Mr Alberto Fernandes Belo, who is now in Darwin.

"The militia know about the Indonesians' plans to kill and burn [following the victory for independence supporters in the United Nations vote]. That's why they want to finish the militia."

Mr Belo was one of thousands who had fled to Dare in the hills outside Dili, before returning to join evacuees who arrived in Darwin yesterday. He said militia members now feared for their lives and sought shelter from the refugees.

"The people accept the militia," he said. "If they come with guns, they disarm them. Then they console them. They will face justice in the future."

The reports were backed up by a UN official still in Dili who said the militia appeared to be preparing to pull out of Dili. "There are still some militia people on the streets with weapons, but generally they seem to be preparing to move out," said Mr Colin Stewart, one of 12 UN staff remaining after Tuesday's evacuation of the UN headquarters in the city.

From West Timor, church sources reported militias crossing the border had spoken of fears of being exterminated as Indonesia came under increasing international pressure over human rights abuses in East Timor. However, others said the militia would continue to be used as a frontline force to "take the bullets" in any engagements with peacekeepers.

"We know that an increasing number of militias are crossing over from East Timor into West Timor ahead of the peacekeeping force and now there are anywhere between 8,000 to 14,000 armed militias in West Timor," said the source.

The militia gangs are virtually in control of the provincial capital, Kupang, where locals say they have taken over restaurants, demanding free food, and forcing shop owners and even petrol stations to hand over goods and petrol free. With the clear failure of the Indonesian military's plan to use the militias to intimidate the East Timorese into voting against independence, Jakarta faces a serious problem over what to do with the thugs.

According to one Kupang resident, resentment was rising to the point that local youths may be used to kill off the militias in West Timor.

In Darwin, the refugees told how Indonesian troops used the militias to force the mass relocation of thousands of East Timorese to Atambua in West Timor, then told the militias they must also leave or die.

"The militia are finished now in East Timor. Only the army are left. The army will kill the militia," said Mr Carlos Mendoza, 19, of Dili.

Interview with Alan Narn in Dili

One of the few journalists remaining in East Timor is Allan Nairn, Who writes for The Nation. We caught up with him in Dili today and asked him about the reaction there to news of an international peacekeeping mission.

Mr. Allan Nairn (Writer, The Nation): People's main worry in Dili is that the terrors be brought to an end. The militias, which are controlled by the Indonesian army, were still on the streets today. Before sundown, you could see houses burning, public buildings being set on fire. Bodies are now being left in the streets of Dili and they're decomposing. I think some hope that maybe peacekeepers will do it. In my view, General Wiranto, the Indonesian military commander, can stop the terror in a moment if he gives the command because these militias are clearly an arm of the Indonesian military. They're under his tight control.

Siegel: When you say that there are houses still burning or public buildings still burning, what, if any, is the pattern to the targets of this sort of violence? Which houses, which public buildings?

Mr. Nairn: Well, a few days ago, I was able to go out on the streets as the Aitarak militia was running wild and I kind ducked from one abandoned house to another. And you could see that this wasn't a general arson. This was very selective torching. The houses that are being burned are those of prominent independence activists and organizers. And the public buildings are stores, warehouses, the mainstays of daily life and economy. They even went so far as to invade the headquarters of the ICRC -- International Committee of the Red Cross -- lead some of the staff members out at gunpoint, take away some of the refugees hiding there to a fate that's still unknown and burn down the ICRC headquarters. And then they moved down the road and did the same with the home of Bishop Belo, the Nobel peace laureate.

Siegel: And there have been many reports reaching the West of violence targeted against church men and women. Why is -- apart from the archbishop himself, why are Catholic clergy a target of violence of these militias?

Mr. Nairn: Well, I think the military is sending a message to the Timorese that all taboos can now be broken, that there are no more limits. Now in this final phase, when it's clear that the Indonesian army is going to eventually have to withdraw from Timor, as a parting shot they are going after the church. Just yesterday I was told by a nun about the attack on the Convent of the Canosian Sisters in which, lined up outside the convent, they saw a uniformed Aitarak militia, a uniformed bree(ph) mob, which are the US-trained police commandos, and uniformed army infantry. And they then went in, took away the refugees and torched the convent. They're just sending the Timorese the message: You have no place left to hide. Our terror is total.

Siegel: You are speaking to us from Dili despite a ban -- not just a general ban, but, I gather, a specific ban on your presence in East Timor. Is that correct?

Mr. Nairn: Yes.

Siegel: And if so, are you concerned for your safety or for our life right now?

Mr. Nairn: Well, I'm probably one of the safer people in Timor. Everyone of the Timorese is in a lot more trouble than I am. I have been banned from Indonesia and occupied Timor since 1991, since after the Dili massacre. When I was in Indonesia this time before coming into Timor, apparently military intelligence was after me. And a foreign diplomat told me last week that the militias were looking for me. But, you know, they haven't caught me, but they've caught many East Timorese. They're the ones who have the real fear for their lives here.

Siegel: But they seem to have persuaded a lot of Western journalists to get out of Timor, a lot of Eastern journalists as well.

Mr. Nairn: Well, that's true, and that's a very important point. This has been a very sophisticated operation, this army militia operation. It shows a lot of forethought and coordination. And some of it has just been naked violence against the Timorese, but another part of this has been what could be called a psychological operation against foreigners. For example, the Mahkota Hotel, where many of the journalists were staying during the election period, was -- right after the election results were announced, the Aitarak went in, they went up on the roof of the hotel, they were shooting. They and the army surrounded the hotel outside. They were shooting in the air. They weren't actually shooting at any of the journalists, but it sure frightened them.

And they did the same thing around the UN compound. Up until a few nights ago, they were just firing off thousands and thousands of rounds into the air every night, automatic rifle, machine guns, they were throwing grenades into the air. I mean, it was a terrifying non-stop barrage. But, again, you know, the bullets weren't being fired into the compound by and large and the grenades weren't coming over the fence. It was just meant to frighten. And I think they really did succeed in rattling, you know, a lot of the UN people and a lot of the foreign journalists. But for Timorese, you know, this is daily life.

Siegel: Mr. Nairn, thank you very much for talking with us today.

Mr. Nairn: You're welcome.

Siegel: Reporter Allan Nairn on the line from Dili, East Timor.

Little hope for the best in plan for the worst

The UN forces in East Timor at first are likely to be involved more in fighting terrorism than keeping the peace, argues Hugh Smith.

Peacekeeping is a continuation of politics by other means. And in East Timor the politics do not look good. Indonesian agreement to a peacekeeping force is no guarantee that the situation on the ground will be peaceful. Militia elements are liable to continue their violence, perhaps helped directly or indirectly by the Indonesian armed forces.

Not only the peacekeeping force will be under threat, but UN staff, many East Timorese and foreign citizens, especially those belonging to countries taking part in the mission. Some in East Timor will obviously find the peacekeeping operation highly provocative.

The first challenge has been to persuade governments to contribute to a force of sufficient size. The target is about 8,000, of which Australia is likely to contribute 2,000, rising to 4,500.

Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand, Canada and the UK also appear convinced that the operation is worth the costs and the risks. Approval by the UN Security Council and the logistical backing of the US will have influenced their decision. In Australia planning has been under way for some months and the ADF is ready to go. The contingent will be predominantly infantry, with necessary support elements such as transport, communications, logistics, intelligence and medical units. Personnel have had injections, briefings and intensive training. Leave and courses have been cancelled and wills prepared. Equipment has been checked, supplies and munitions replenished, and detailed plans made. Not all countries will be as advanced.

Several tasks face the planners. Getting soldiers and their equipment to East Timor is not easy. Troops can be conveyed by RAAF Hercules and the Navy's catamaran, but transporting light armoured vehicles and armoured personnel carriers by sea will be much slower. Australia has minimal airlift capacity and planners probably wish they had twice as many Hercules or a few C-5 Galaxies. The Blackhawk helicopters can fly across without refuelling.

The first priority will be to secure the means of entry to maintain supplies and personnel. Planes landing at Dili or ships pulling in to the docks could be attacked, so a defensive perimeter has to be established. Then Dili and the larger population centres must be secured, including the UN mission, hospitals, and camps for displaced people. Communications within the force and back to Canberra will also be a priority.

If militia violence continues, infantry patrols -- on foot and in vehicles -- must seek out the sources and deal with them rapidly and ruthlessly. Armoured personnel carriers, light armoured vehicles and Blackhawk helicopters will be at a premium.

Peacekeepers will need rules of engagement covering when they can open fire with lethal force, how to deal with violent mobs and what riot-control agents can be used. The whole operation begins to look less like peacekeeping and more like the counter- insurgency the British Army has been doing in Northern Ireland for decades. ADF experience in Somalia will be an asset.

The great uncertainty is the level of violence. A force of 8,000 is too small to control a large number of widely separated townships if significant hostilities continue. Poor transport infrastructure and mountainous terrain compound the problems.

Initially, East Timor is likely to be divided between the peacekeeping force and the Indonesian Army, with the former controlling the key centres, leaving the hinterland to Indonesia. There are dangers in this, but there seems to be no alternative, politically or practically.

But what happens if, for example, militia elements base themselves in the Indonesian-controlled areas for attacks on peacekeepers? Do the peacekeepers have to stop at the boundary or will they be entitled to maintain pursuits that could bring them into conflict with Indonesian forces? Apart from the difficult question of where the boundaries are to be drawn, there is also the prospect of a de facto partition of East Timor.

The legal status of the operation also needs careful management. Will Indonesia agree to a status-of-forces agreement authorising peacekeepers to carry arms and use them against Indonesian citizens? And what is to be done with militia members detained by the peacekeepers? Can they be tried and punished? Do they have to be handed over to Indonesian authorities? Who will be responsible for peacekeepers captured by hostile forces?

Another delicate question is what the peacekeepers will do with evidence of war crimes which they will find hard to avoid. Will they record mass graves and photograph buildings where captives have been killed? The force is unlikely to have a mandate to arrest suspected war criminals, but if it does not act the UN will be called impotent.

Humanitarian problems must also be dealt with. Peacekeepers will be expected to bring in initial supplies of food, water, shelter and medical support until non-government international agencies can establish. Police will be needed to bring back law and order. Civil administration has to resume. The entire country will need to be rebuilt, almost from scratch. This cannot be done quickly or cheaply.

The peacekeeping operation will also have to be conducted in co- operation with the governments of the contributing countries, each of which will have its own concerns and a domestic constituency to keep happy. Australia may be the lead nation and provide the force commander, but it will not have total control over other national forces and their resources.

We can hope for a peaceful mission with minimum casualties. But military planners have to prepare for the worst because the lives of peacekeepers, Australians and others, will be at stake. Those in charge will also have to be flexible. No military plans, it is said, survive contact with the enemy. The same is true of peacekeeping.

[Hugh Smith is an associate professor in the school of politics at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra.]

Rape used as a systematic torture

Indonesian soldiers used rape as a secret weapon, but their "orphans: bear silent witness. Louise Williams and Leonie Lamont report.

Sister Maria leaned forward and quietly confided the truth about the Catholic orphanage which lies along the lonely northern coastal road of East Timor: "Most of the children are mixed race, the babies of women raped by Indonesian soldiers."

This is not a truth openly voiced in East Timorese society. Instead, said Sister Maria in an interview in Dili earlier this year, the children were raised by the Church. But, while they are not openly rejected, everyone knows the shame of their parentage.

In the early years following the Indonesian invasion, orphanages were filled with genuine orphans: so many adults had been killed in military operations. Now, Sister Maria said, most are children of rape, a tactic used over and over again in war, usually to hurt the father or husband of the victim. The woman's own suffering is an afterthought in a war between men.

"One young woman I knew had four babies, I kept asking her why this had happened again and she just said there was nothing she could do," she said. Sister Maria's own whereabouts remain unknown, following the rampage through Dili and the murder of Catholic nuns and priests.

Rape, according to a report released this year by Ms Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, has been systematically used by elements of the Indonesian military in East Timor, Aceh and Irian Jaya.

"Rape was used by the military as a method of torture and intimidation against the local population. Relatives of political opponents were raped by the military as a form of revenge, or to force the relatives out of hiding," she said.

"Much of the violence against women in East Timor was perpetrated in the context of these areas being treated as military zones ... rape by soldiers in these areas is tried in military tribunals, and not before an ordinary court of law."

Under Indonesian law, for a rape to be prosecuted it required corroboration -- including the testimony of two witnesses. Women lived in a "realm of private terror", for any victims or witnesses who dared to take action were intimidated with death threats, Ms Coomaraswamy reported.

"Many of the women who were raped as virgins are single mothers who have suffered stigma in their communities after giving birth to children of Indonesian soldiers ...

"Some of these children are the result of rapes, others are the product of a situation that resembles sexual slavery and some are the result of consensual sex ... the women are having a very difficult time, not only because of poverty, but because the sight of these children often reminds them of rape." She said the Indonesian state should take responsibility for these children.

Senator Marise Payne, one of the parliamentary members of the Australian observer delegation to East Timor, said she had been told of soldiers picking attractive girls from the villages, and making them their "playthings". "This has been happening for 20 years," she said.

A Catholic nun, Sister Tess Ward, said: "Many women have said to me they feel dirty, and are too ashamed to tell people."

"I don't know of anytime when women were game enough to tell the police. Many of the people said to me the only people we can talk to is the priest or sisters.

Militia terror stalks refugees across border

Kupang -- A terror campaign by pro-Indonesian militia that started in East Timor has moved across the border to West Timor, where more than 100,000 refugees have fled, fearful sources said.

People, who have visited the border town of Atambua, described it as a lawless place of gunfire, murder and kidnapping.

There are fears that army-backed militiamen in Atambua and Kupang are hunting down pro-independence refugees, say several sources who asked for anonymity.

Two people were shot dead "by armed people that were not the police" near a market in Atambua last Thursday, a traveller returning from the area who heard the gunshots told AFP.

He could not confirm whether the victims were supporters of an independent East Timor. The territory voted overwhelmingly for independence in a UN-sponsored vote held August 30.

"People are killed during the day time," said another traveller who recently returned to Kupang after several days in Atambua.

One person who also travelled to the region said he had spoken with a witness, who, late last week, saw a person kidnapped on the street in Atambua.

"From his point of view it was militias" who abducted the person, said the source, who recognised both Aitarak (Thorn) and Besi Merah Putih (Red and White Iron) militia, groups who were prominent in the East Timor violence, in the town. "Everybody has a gun -- the army, the police, the militia," he said.

Another source in direct contact with people in Atambua over the weekend said most shops were closed. "The tension is escalating," he said. Armed men, believed to be militia, are demanding free goods from merchants, he said.

"The travel is difficult and dangerous," the source said. "The militia are hijacking trucks at gunpoint ... because they want to evacuate their relatives from there." He said Indonesian security forces are "not taking away the weapons" from militiamen.

One traveller said he saw on the streets of Atambua about 20 Land Rovers stolen from the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET). "Some were driven by IDPs [internally displaced people or refugees], some were driven by armed people," he said.

Most refugees who have crossed the land border, fleeing the post-election violence in East Timor, are staying in the Atambua area where they were sheltering in groups of 800 to 1,000 people, one source said. "You see displaced people behind houses," he said. "Each camp has a coordinator -- either military or militia."

Two travellers said young men are rarely seen in the camps. "What is happening to the young men? Are they recruited by force?" one asked.

Other sources said many of the refugees in Atambua were pro- Indonesian and probably families of militiamen who have been ordered to fight across the border.

A young East Timorese who fled to Indonesian West Timor called the refugee centers "concentration camps." He said he had been able to stay elsewhere. "We don't want to register at the camps, because if we register, we go on a black list and the militias will force us to follow them," he said.

Knowledgeable sources believe the largest single refugee camp in West Timor is Kupang's Noelbaki facility where between 12,000 and 20,000 refugees are staying.

One source with contacts inside the camp said two people were stabbed to death at Noelbati last week. The source said militias had been "sweeping" the camps, looking for supporters of East Timorese independence.

"We definitely know the militias are going around Kupang," the source said. Even outside the camps, militias have knocked at peoples' doors asking if East Timorese live there, he said. "They are going around asking questions. People are in danger."

Troops fire on women's refugee camp

Max Stahl, Dare -- This once peaceful hill station overlooking Dili was turned into a death site at the weekend as Indonesian forces surrounded and fired on terrified refugees living rough in nearby plantations. Dare, once a popular resort for Portuguese colonists escaping the heat of the coastal capital six miles away, is today a scene of misery and terror.

Some 30,000 people, mainly women, children and the elderly, who were forced from their homes by the pro-Indonesian militias and the Indonesian Army, have erected shacks and home-made tents to escape the carnage in the below.

But on Saturday afternoon the deceptive tranquillity here was broken by the rumble of a column of military vehicles coming up the road. Normally the military's dirty work is conducted by the pro-Jakarta militiamen or soldiers dressed as militia. This time, however, the troops made no effort to conceal their identity.

A detachment of more than 100 Indonesian marines emerged from the lorries and then deployed, fanning out through the banana and coffee crops. Although there are no armed pro-independence forces here the marines did not seem to notice. They opened fire without provocation, killing a woman. Her body slumped over her handicapped husband, who was pinned beneath her.

Calling out for the people to "surrender", the marines did not seem surprised when the only people to emerge with their hands in the air were mothers and children. The incident served to prove graphically that despite repeated assurances from Jakarta, troops on the ground are carrying out very different orders.

Yesterday a German Jesuit priest, Father Karl Albrecht, was the latest victim when he was shot outside the Jesuit residence in Dili.

There are very real fears that in the time it takes to negotiate the make-up of a international force, Jakarta will be able to finish the brutal job of clearing the local population.

Jakarta backs down

By Michelle Grattan, Hamish McDonald, Bernard Lagan and Peter Cole-Adams.

Indonesia buckled last night and invited a United Nations peacekeeping force "from friendly nations" to enter East Timor.

President B.J.Habibie, in a televised address to the nation from the presidential palace in Jakarta, said the situation was "rapidly deteriorating" and the force would help "restore peace and protect the populace".

The President said he had taken the decision after hearing the results of an inspection on Saturday of East Timor's capital, Dili, by the commander of the armed forces, General Wiranto.

"Too many people have lost their lives since the beginning of the unrest, lost their homes and security," Dr Habibie said. "We can't wait any longer. We have to stop the suffering and mourning immediately."

Dr Habibie informed the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, of the long delayed decision after a 2 1/2-hour meeting of Cabinet and senior military leaders.

No timing was given for the entry of the international force, to be headed by Australian troops, but Dr Habibie said Indonesia would welcome the force in East Timor "as soon as possible".

The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alitas, flies to New York today for more detailed talks at the UN.

The US deputy national security adviser, Mr Sandy Berger, said last night that he expected the force could be deployed "within the next several days". Dr Habibie said the force would have to work on the ground with the Indonesian military -- discredited after two weeks of failing to control the murderous pro- Indonesian militias.

Thousands of East Timorese have been killed or have disappeared, on reliable accounts, including UN documentation, as the military stood by and in some cases cases took part.

Dr Habibie praised the efforts of Indonesian troops but said they faced "very difficult psychological constraints" -- an apparent reference to emotional links with the pro-Indonesian militias responsible for the brutality and destruction.

In Darwin, where much of Australia's troops and Navy and Air Force support is based, lights were ablaze all along the docks and at Tindall Base, near Katherine, Blackhawk helicopters were engaged in late night manoeuvres.

Earlier, the Prime Minister said the United States had joined about a dozen nations in a "coalition of the willing" ready to help restore peace.

Commitments had come from New Zealand, Canada, Britain, Portugal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, with additional support likely from Sweden and France.

In Australia, there were fears earlier that Indonesia may try to exclude Australians from any ground involvement -- insisting on an Asia-only force.

President Clinton said it was anticipated the US would provide extensive airlift support to bring troops from other countries, primarily Asia, other logistical support, intelligence and communications. Both Mr Howard and the Americans yesterday slid around the questions of whether the US would have any ground troops in the operation.

Mr Howard said that the Australian military -- the people who needed to be satisfied with the US commitment -- was happy with what was proposed.

As the peacekeepers prepare to move in, thousands of frightened refugees -- most without food or shelter -- threw themselves on ill-equipped hideouts of the pro-independence Falintil resistance in the rugged hills of East Timor.

Reports reaching the UN in Darwin said they were being pursued by the army-backed militias -- with some deaths already reported -- as they took their scorched-earth campaign to a new level of terror. The reports said there were some attacks on up to 50,000 refugees who had sought refuge in the hills near Dare, nine kilometres from Dili. More than 100,000 East Timorese have already been taken to holding camps in West Timor, some of them under armed guard.

In Darwin, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, said yesterday that she wanted events elsewhere in Indonesia -- including West Timor -- to be included in her planned war crimes tribunal on East Timor. She flew into Darwin to talk to witnesses to the killing and violence and told a press conference that she had spoken to refugees who had first-hand knowledge of atrocities and would name those responsible.

There had been "gross, blatant, terrible violations of the human rights of East Timorese", Mrs Robinson said. "It has been done in the uniform of a government complicit in what has been done in militia trappings."

Slaughter linked to militia, soldiers

Doug Struck, Kupang -- A human rights organisation has documented atrocities in East Timor that implicate the Indonesian military and militias in at least seven mass killings and dozens of individual slayings.

"Killing, plundering, burning, terror, intimidation and kidnapping have been carried out by the Indonesian armed forces, along with the pro-Jakarta militia" since East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence on 30 August, concludes the report by the Foundation for Law, Human Rights and Justice, based in Dili, the East Timor capital.

Many refugees were interviewed secretly because of fears of retribution from militiamen in the refugee camps. Most of the atrocities cited by the group have not been verified because after shooting erupted in Dili, journalists were confined to the United Nations compound, and then evacuated.

According to the report, witnesses identified Indonesian military members, in addition to the militias, as participants in the atrocities. Indonesia has denied that any mass killings happened, and has sent more troops to East Timor to impose martial law and end the turmoil.

The report includes some incidents that have been verified by the media and other sources and others not previously known. Among them:

Several hours before results of East Timor's independence referendum were announced on 4 September, 45 people were killed in Maliana, western East Timor. They included 21 drivers and local employees of the UN observers' operation.

Ten people in Bidau Macaur Atas, a neighborhood in Dili, were hacked to death on 4 September by militia and Indonesian armed forces. Some were buried by relatives, but "others were put into bags and thrown away on the side of the road. Others were thrown into the ocean". On the same day, militia members killed 50 people in Bedois, eastern Dili.

The next day, eight people who went to the Dili harbor to try to leave East Timor by ferry were identified as pro-independence, and shot dead by Aitarak militia members.

The group said it also documented the attack on a Dili Roman Catholic centre, which killed at least 25 people, including a baby; the killing of 15 local employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Dili on 5 September; and an attack by the army and militia on a Catholic church compound in the Dili neighborhood of Balide, where unknown numbers were slain.

The human rights group, which is working in East and western Timor, provided reliable reports in Dili before chaos engulfed the city last week. Its offices were ransacked and many of its files destroyed.

Much of the violence in East Timor has been carried out by pro- Indonesian militias, but there have been frequent reports of shooting and looting by the military. The Indonesian armed forces chief, General Wiranto, acknowledged yesterday that the militias and military were "comrades in arms". He said his forces have not succeeded in ending the violence, because for his soldiers, "I can understand it is very hard to shoot their own people".

Horror worse than UN believes

Darwin -- An East Timorese support group claimed here Monday to have received reports that tens of thousands of people had died in a deliberate genocidal campaign by Indonesia.

The East Timor International Support Centre also believes 300,000 to 400,000 people face death from starvation and thirst and another 250,000 people, a third of the population, have been deported in vast convoys of trucks and ships.

Darwin doctor Andrew McNaughton said the group has got information from people with access to the only satellite telephones left in East Timor painting the crisis as being even worse than the United Nations believes.

McNaughton says the information his group has been receiving -- from friends and relatives -- is entirely credible although there is a lack of hard evidence about the numbers involved.

"There's no doubt the Indonesian army is engaged in an attempted genocide, a final solution against the people of East Timor," he said. "We don't use these words lightly. The way in which this has been put together shows that it has been planned for weeks and months as a major operation.

"The information we have indicates more than 200,000 people, perhaps by now 250,000 people, have been forcibly removed to West Timor and elsewhere. We know of vast convoys of trucks that have gone across the border to Atambua, we know of deportations in naval ships, we know that people have been flown out in planes."

Young people are alleged to have been taken out of concentration camps in Atambua and probably killed while others on ships had been beaten to death and thrown over the side. "We have reports that ships have left Dili and come back empty within hours and there's a suspicion that the people on board have been killed."

He said the media focus has been on the besieged UN compound in Dile and on the Dare refugee enclave where 31,000 people face starvation, but the situation throughout East Timor is equally bad or worse.

Satellite cameras had confirmed that most of the towns of East Timor were ablaze at some stage, he said. "We think and we know from evidence on the ground that in most of East Timor a lot of the towns and villages have been sacked and burnt, looted and destroyed."

There had been a systematic attack on East Timorese leaders, priests and nuns, with another religious leader, this time a Protestant moderator murdered at the weekend, McNaughton said.

"We have reason to believe that because people fled all over East Timor that there are probably some hundreds of thousands of people in the mountains, maybe as many as three or four hundred thousand people. It's not just Dili, it's everywhere.

"Before voting day people warned us that they would vote and run for the hills because they expected violent reprisals. We think that there are 300,000 to 400,000 in the mountains of East Timor.

"They don't have water, they don't have sufficient water, they don't have food, and we have reports that people are already dying in Dare and in other locations.

"They have fled to the mountains to be with the resistance but the resistance don't have the capacity to look after them and to provide food and water for tens of thousands of people.

"The situation is horrendous, tens of thousands dead, 200,000 forcibly deported, of whom many have probably already been killed in West Timor or elsewhere -- a major orchestrated forced deporation reminscent maybe of the Nazis. We have people dying in the mountains because of lack of humanitarian aid."

Military behind bloodshed: UN official

Jakarta -- Indonesia's armed forces (TNI) appears to have organised the mass bloodshed that hit East Timor, after it voted overwhelmingly for independence, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said yesterday.

"My worry is that it appears to be systemic. All the interlocuters I spoke to.. all of them said TNI was fully involved . orchestrating it," she told a news conference.

She said that she had received many harrowing reports, including those of rape and systematic evictions, when she talked to local and international UN staff who had been evacuated to Darwin in northern Australia.

She has recommended that a panel of experts set up an inquiry, as to whether there should be some sort of international tribunal.

That would help stop "the well-planned and systematic policy of killings, displacement, destruction of property and intimidation carried out by militia groups and elements of the security," said the High Commissioner. "There must be no impunity from that scale of violation," she said.

Much of the evidence needed for prosecution of crimes committed in East Timor had already been collected, she said. "This will allow the international community to put the criminals responsible away, provided the resolve is there."
 

Aceh/West Papua

Aceh, Ambon learn cost of resisting Jakarta

John Aglionby, Jakarta -- Thousands of people in Aceh province in western Indonesia demonstrated yesterday to demand a referendum on independence from Jakarta amid reports of unabated military brutality both there and on the eastern spice island of Ambon. Human rights activists say that while the world's gaze has been fixed on East Timor, more than 200 people have been killed since July in both troubled provinces.

Amien Rais and Abdurrahman Wahid, two of Indonesia's most influential politicians and both well-known Islamic intellectuals, joined the 4,000 students and Muslim scholars who demonstrated at the main mosque in Aceh's provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

Carrying banners emblazoned with the word "referendum", the protesters were unfazed by military threats to clamp down on any separatist movements in the wake of the army-inspired destruction in East Timor after the territory's overwhelming vote to sever its ties with Jakarta.

"To solve the conflict that is happening in Aceh there is no other way but with a referendum," Tengku Nurujjahri Yahia, a local Muslim scholar, told the meeting.

Humam Hamid, a prominent Acehnese lawyer and human rights activist, said the military's "attempt to wipe East Timor off the map" would not cow the Acehnese into submission.

"We want peace and justice and will not rest until we get them. If the army tries to repeat East Timor here it will only make the situation very much worse," he added.

Information collected by the Aceh Human Rights Forum indicates that more than 200 people have been murdered in Aceh in the past six weeks. Witnesses say "unidentified mysterious gunmen", believed to be members of undercover military units, are responsible for most of the deaths.

Aceh's problems arise from Jakarta's repeated refusal to make good a 1958 promise to grant wide-ranging political, religious and cultural autonomy to the resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra.

Armed separatist movements emerged in the late 80s and since 1989 the Indonesian army has waged a ferocious campaign to crush the Acehnese separatist movement.

President BJ Habibie and his generals promised to investigate abuses and look into devolution while intensifying a crackdown on separatists. Last week the Indonesian parliament discussed the possibility of "special status" for Aceh, but it is not expected to take a decision.

An army spokesman in Aceh said yesterday that the situation was still "very tense" but that the majority of the 140,000 refugees who fled their villages in July had returned.

The chances of lasting peace on the island of Ambon also appear to be slim, according to local human rights workers.

"After eight months of violence, the situation is getting worse not better," said Henky Hatu of Pattimura university in Ambon. "We now have East Timor style thugs armed with military weapons operating in many areas."

Researchers in his department say there have been 202 deaths and 749 serious injuries from ethnic clashes and military intervention since July 15. Reliable church sources say this is a conservative estimate.

"Our figures show there were well over 100 deaths between July 26 and August 15," a priest living in Ambon said. "We have also heard of very nasty clashes elsewhere in the area and so the death toll now is probably well over 300."

Independent confirmation of such figures is almost impossible. Ambon's airport has been closed to commercial flights since the beginning of August, terror gangs stalk all the inter-provincial ferries, and many roads are so dangerous they are no-go zones.

"People have been killed on every single boat for the last six weeks," said Andi Tamher, a student about to leave for Jakarta. "The only way to ensure surviving on the ferries is to rent a cabin and lock oneself in, but few people can afford to do this."

More than 2,000 military reinforcements have been deployed on Ambon to quell the eight-month unrest. At the heart of the violence there appears to be a clash between Christians and Muslims, but many people believe this is just a cover story for more sinister goings-on.

"Everything here is top down. No one is getting the people involved in the peace efforts," Dr Hatu said. "It seems the government doesn't want to find a solution.

"We're witnessing political games among the elite and the people are being used as the scapegoat," he added. "No one has any idea how long it will go on for."

'Special autonomy' plan for Aceh

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- On the same day that an independent commission to investigate military abuses was visiting Aceh for the first time, seven leading political parties announced proposals for "special autonomy" for the rich, violence-wracked province.

Both moves yesterday betrayed Jakarta's deep concern about rising separatist activity in Aceh, a concern which has only been heightened by the East Timor crisis.

The proposed special autonomy for Aceh is close to the "comprehensive autonomy" offered by Jakarta to East Timor, which the East Timorese rejected in their August 30, United Nations- supervised ballot.

Aceh's deputy chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Jamaluddin Ahmad, spoke in Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh, on behalf of the seven political parties which won the most votes in June's general election, including ruling party Golkar and opposition frontrunner the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

"We hope that at least a small part of the constitutional framework for the special autonomy for Aceh can become an input for the Government and the Parliament to strengthen the law number 22 and 25 of 1999 and the draft law on the special region of Aceh," Mr Shmad said.

He was referring to two recently passed laws on the sharing of provincial revenues between the province and the central Government in Jakarta, and a draft law recognising Aceh's specific customs, laws and education.

He said the general outline of the proposed autonomy would leave foreign affairs, external security, fiscal and monetary matters and the judiciary in Jakarta's hands, with Aceh able to accept aid from abroad and from Jakarta.

The proposal is for Aceh to get authority over 70 percent of the revenues from local oil and gas resources and over 60 percent of other natural resources. These proportions are significantly larger than the respective 20 and 15 per cent allowed for under the recently passed law.

The proposal represents an effort to buy off growing anger in Aceh at the continued presence of extra troops and riot police in the province following the past decade of special military status for the province which has been marked by army-led massacres.

The Independent Commission on Aceh, formed by President Bacharuddin Habibie more than a month ago, is to investigate such military abuses, starting with the most recent, on July 23 in the Betung Ateuh area of West Aceh.

The team of independent investigators, which will visit Betung Ateuh first, includes people involved in last year's fact-finding team on the rapes of Chinese Indonesian women during the power struggle in Jakarta of May last year.

Members of the team have been appalled by preliminary evidence gathering, which in the words of one member, spelled "Kopassus, Kopassus, Kopassus", the army's special forces now renowned for manipulating much of the recent violence in East Timor.

Many Indonesians feel much more strongly about the potential lose of Aceh than they do about East Timor -- hence broad-based efforts by politicians and academics outside government to find ways to avert a second national tragedy. Aceh, which played an important role in the nationalist struggle that led to the birth of Indonesia in 1945, is largely Muslim and rich in oil and gas.

But a growing number of Acehnese are likely to reject any offers from Jakarta as being too little, too late.
 

News & issues

Jakarta cave-in sparks anger

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- President B.J. Habibie's decision to allow foreign troops into trouble-torn East Timor sparked an upsurge of nationalist sentiments especially in the government and local media, with many resentful of international pressure on Indonesia.

While diplomats and analysts saw some light at the end of the tunnel over the issue -- with the possible deployment of a multi-national UN peacekeeping force in a matter of weeks -- newspapers yesterday expressed anger after Jakarta buckled under the weight of criticism.

There were also demonstrations at Australia's embassy in Jakarta and at the representative office of the state of Western Australia in Surabaya. Police managed to head off protesters intending to march to the American consulate in Surabaya.

But sentiment on Indonesia's stock market rose in the wake of Jakarta's decision, closing up 1.22 per cent at 569.6 points yesterday. The rupiah was quoted at 7385/7885 to the US dollar in late trading, against 8250/8300 on Friday.

While reports out of Dili said the capital was decidedly calmer yesterday, the news for Indonesia's Defence Forces (TNI) out of Jakarta was anything but.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said there was mounting evidence the military was fully involved in the violence against East Timorese -- and spoke of the possibility of having a tribunal to examine human rights abuses by the TNI.

The sentiment in leading Indonesian dailies, however, was decidedly one of anger. The Indonesian-language Kompas daily, accusing the West of double standards, said in a strident editorial: "The presence of a UN peacekeeping force in East Timor is the result of continuous pressure against us.

"The international reaction to East Timor's problems has removed the mask of Western governments. Previously they supported invasion, now they threaten us. In the past, they sent war arms to fight the Timorese.

"Now they have stopped. But we don't have to be disappointed. There are still many countries which sell sophisticated weapons, like China, Russia, Argentina or even India."

The criticism appeared directed at countries like the US, which backed quietly Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor and gave arms to the military, as it saw Jakarta as a staunch regional ally against communism. Australia was also one of the few countries to recognise Indonesian rule in East Timor.

Several other papers reflected in varying degrees the sentiments aired by Kompas. But the English-language Jakarta Post, hailed Dr Habibie's move, saying it would rebuild foreign confidence in the country. "It provides Indonesia with a face-saving exit," the paper said.

But with national pride hit badly by Jakarta having to accept the idea of foreign troops in the territory, obstacles could still crop up and affect the composition and the type of peacekeeping force that could be sent in. Some parliamentary leaders here have expressed opposition to countries like the US and Australia being involved.

Australia, which has positioned itself as the leader of any international force, has put 2,000 troops on 48-hour standby.

Western diplomats said that while Jakarta accepted participation by Australia and the US publicly, there were private reservations.

"Deep down in their hearts, the Indonesians don't want anyone," said a senior diplomat. "But given a choice between Westerners and Asians, the government prefers Asians to lead the way."

Indonesian generals and politicians mention the involvement of Asean nations -- in particular Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore -- which could work side by side with TNI.

They said bilateral military exercises have fostered strong ties and would thus make it easier to coordinate operations on the ground.

A Western diplomat said there was likely to be "a great deal of foot-dragging and negotiations" in Jakarta and New York over the next few days to "save the face of a few individuals".

"But there is light at the end of the tunnel," he added. "The Indonesians have conceded the fundamental principle of allowing foreign troops in. There will be some resistance along the way, but things can only improve for East Timor."

PAN and PKB reject state security bill

Jakarta -- Opposition to the state security bill continued on Thursday, with the National Mandate Party (PAN) and National Awakening Party (PKB) demanding the House of Representatives drop the government-sponsored draft law.

PKB secretary-general Muhaimin Iskandar said his party would reject the bill because the current House did not have the legitimacy to deliberate its terms.

"If the House heeds the people's aspirations and increasing protests, it should stop the deliberation of the bill and leave the job to the next House instead," he said in a seminar on the bill held by the Mass Communications Forum.

Separately, PAN secretary-general Faisal Basri said his party was opposed to the bill because it feared that it would be misused by the government during the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in November.

"Regardless of all significant changes made into the bill, we are worried that the bill will only justify the government in preventing the people from holding demonstrations and protests before and during the MPR General Session," he told the House committee in charge of deliberating the bill on Thursday.

He said student and mass demonstrations were expected to color the Session because of anger over President B.J. Habibie's handling of East Timor and the failure to resolve allegations of corruption against his predecessor, Soeharto. Habibie will deliver his accountability speech before the MPR in the Session, scheduled to take place between November 1 and 10.

Another speaker in the seminar, Faisal Razi from the Democratic People's Party (PRD), called on all political parties and mass organizations to reject the bill, which gives authority to the military to use force and take wide-ranging measures in a state of emergency.

"PRD is against the bill because it gives new authority to the military, which has lost the people's confidence because of its tarnished past image," he said.

PAN and PRD also urged the House to annul the restrictive 1959 law concerning a state of emergency, which is now in effect in East Timor.

Agus Muhyidin, the House committee chairman who also spoke in the seminar, said it would depend on the House as a whole whether to halt deliberation of the bill. The House is expected to endorse the draft law on September 23.

Spokesman for the Indonesian Military (TNI) Maj. Gen. Sudrajat appealed to all quarters opposed to the bill to recognize TNI's "goodwill" in accepting amendments.

"TNI has been open to gradual reform to repair its image. Many substantial changes have been made in the bill and the military agrees with the changes in order to accommodate the people's demands," he said in the seminar.

Syamsuddin, a member of the National Commission of Human Rights and a retired Army general, hailed the changes made by legislators, saying the present version was far more democratic than the original draft.

"All sides opposing the bill should reconsider their rejection of the bill," he said, citing the bill guarantee of law supremacy, human rights and democracy in a state of emergency.

Student rallies protesting the bill continued in Surabaya and Yogyakarta on Thursday. In Surabaya, hundreds of students took to the streets in separate demonstrations. A student group identified as the Arek Surabaya Association protested outside the local council to demand counselors reject the bill.

Another 400 students claiming to represent the Communication Forum of Surabaya Students (Formasa) held a free-speech forum in front of the provincial legislative body on Jl. Indrapura. They said the bill would pave the way for the military to strengthen its grip on power.

In Yogyakarta, more than 200 students representing the Indonesian Front for Youth Struggle (FPPI) marched through the town. The march caused traffic congestion on major streets. The students also burned tire stashes and carried a coffin covered by a red cloth contained with signatures of students who rejected the bill.

Jakarta severs security ties with Canberra

Don Greenlees and Robert Garran -- Australia's battered relations with Indonesia suffered a new blow yesterday when Jakarta terminated the bilateral security treaty.

Prime Minister John Howard played down the move, which he said was expected. "We never saw it as being the solution to all the problems in the relationship, as the former government did, so I don't pay too much regard and I'm not particularly surprised or concerned about this decision," Mr Howard said.

But former prime minister Paul Keating, who secretly negotiated the pact for 18 months until it was revealed in December 1995, said Jakarta's action was a symbol of the "all-time low" in relations between the two countries.

The cancellation of the agreement came as the UN announced Thailand would appoint the deputy commander for Interfet, which is to be led by Australian Major-General Peter Cosgrove.

In Jakarta, Political and Security Affairs Minister Feisal Tanjung cited Australia's decision to review or cancel a number of bilateral military activities as among reasons for Indonesia deciding to "abrogate" the agreement. He said the attitude and actions of Australia were "no longer consistent with the spirit and letter of the agreement".

Senior Indonesian military sources said there was widespread resentment in the armed forces at what was seen as Australia's aggressive support for the August 30 ballot in East Timor and its leading role in forming a peace force to the territory. They predicted the peace-enforcers would run into opposition from pro-Indonesia forces in East Timor.

It is understood the decision to scrap the 1995 agreement was left largely to armed forces commander General Wiranto and other senior officers, but endorsed by President B.J. Habibie.

Defence Minister John Moore said the treaty decision suggested the TNI "will probably not be very co-operative" in East Timor, although this did not mean they would be aggressive.

Meanwhile, the latest intelligence reports showed the TNI were leaving eastern parts of East Timor, sources said. But there are fears elements of the military in the western parts of the territory intend to try to partition East Timor, raising the prospect of confrontations with the Interfet force.

Eurico Guterres, deputy commander of East Timor's pro-Indonesia militia, yesterday warned his forces would put eight of the territory's 13 districts off limits to multinational troops, the Antara news agency said.

Meanwhile in Darwin, RAAF plans to airdrop food to refugees in East Timor late yesterday were frustrated when detailed talks with Indonesia about the locations and other technical details failed to conclude in time for the operation. It is expected more efforts will be made to airdrop today.

Tension in Jakarta

Compere: East Timor's anti-independence militia have now been seen on the streets of Jakarta, threatening pro-independence East Timorese and foreign journalists. There were scenes which seemed quite out of place in the Indonesian capital, as Geoff Thompson reports from Jakarta.

Geoff Thompson: An angry young man in a pro-autonomy T-shirt denounces Xanana Gusmao. Nearby, another man stands wearing a T- shirt bearing the name of Mahidi, one of East Timor's notorious anti-independence militias -- red berets and army fatigues. And foreign journalists are warned to leave. These pro-autonomy protesters then break into a run to chase what they claim are pro-independence provocateurs.

It looks and sounds like Dili, but it's in the heart of Jakarta, a city in which small, angry protests with different angry agendas are becoming frequent if not well attended.

The Indonesian media is discussing nationalism, jingoism and anti-Australian sentiment. In its latest bulletin to Australian citizens in Indonesia, the Australian Embassy in Jakarta says that it, the consulate in Bali, and a number of Australian businesses have received threatening telephone calls, including bomb threats.

But is anti-foreigner sentiment, and in particular anti- Australian sentiment, representative of Indonesian public opinion at this sensitive time? That is the question that cannot yet be answered.

What we do know is that this question is about to be sorely tested when thousands of Australian troops lead the UN's peacekeeping force into East Timor to tackle the violence by militia who have the support of the Indonesian military which still remains in the territory.

Indeed the UN already knows very well that several militia commanders are serving officers in the Indonesian military, and so it's hard to imagine just how the peace-enforcers will avoid some sort of conflict with the Indonesian military.

Political analyst Soedjati Djiwandono thinks that the complete withdrawal of the Indonesian military is the only real answer.

Soedjati Djiwandono: Well, I hope that the first thing the UN peacekeeping forces -- what they would do first is to disarm these people -- would disarm the people of both groups, both the pro-integration and pro-independence East Timorese. Without disarming them, yes the possibility is real that somebody might shoot at you, and you would retaliate, and there will be a conflict, and you have to deal with the Indonesian military.

Geoff Thompson: I think the world wants peacekeeping troops in East Timor. But now that that is a reality, the questions have to be in turn to how it will work in practice while the Indonesian military remains in East Timor.

Soedjati Djiwandono: That's why in the first place I would like to see the Indonesian military withdrawn totally from East Timor.

Compere: Political analyst Soedjati Djiwandono.

Wiranto may quit to run for president

Susan Sim, Jakarta -- Indonesia's powerful defence forces (TNI) chief General Wiranto will likely step down next month to prepare for his presidential campaign as a parliamentary investigation into a banking scandal looks certain to implicate close friends of Dr B.J. Habibie and kill off his chances.

Sources close to Gen Wiranto told The Straits Times yesterday that he was "definitely stepping down" sometime after October 5 -- Defence Forces Day.

He would retain his portfolio as Defence Minister, but would relinquish operational command of the military to current deputy chief Admiral Widodo, who would hold the post in an acting capacity.

His resignation as the TNI commander-in-chief would pave the way for the ruling Golkar party to name him as its new presidential candidate in a national leadership congress due to convene around Oct 14 or Oct 15.

And to prod political parties into some deal-making soon, Adm Widodo on Monday raised the prospect of a delay in the convening of the 700-member People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which was scheduled to pick a president by November 10.

"It seems to me that certain people, especially the political elite, have yet to prepare mentally and politically to face the upcoming MPR general meeting," he told a nationwide meeting of military commanders.

Urging politicians to reach a consensus, he added: "There has been a high potential for conflict in our society so that a riot can easily surface in the capital and other regions. Such a condition is of course not conducive to the safe, orderly and democratic holding of the general assembly of the MPR."

His warning spooked the stock market, whose key composite price index shed 6.653 points to 562.999 in the first hour of trading. The rupiah also weakened to 8100/8200 to the US dollar in early morning trade, down from the euphoric 7840/7880 on Monday after the peacekeeping announcement.

Golkar deputy chairman Marzuki Darusman said Adm Widodo's comments indicated that the military hoped to sideline Dr Habibie by encouraging parties to reach a consensus rather than risk a vote in the MPR with its unpredictable outcome.

Golkar itself had not yet decided to dump the President as its candidate, but it was clear that it would soon "have to outline the picture to Habibie that there was still no clear support for him despite continued lobbying".

He said that no deals had yet been cut with the TNI to support Gen Wiranto's candidacy, but added: "If we do make a decision to nominate him, it would be best if he's nominated when he's not in office anymore."

But confidants of Gen Wiranto appeared assured that at least one major party would support his candidacy. The major Muslim parties, which together control the largest bloc of MPR seats, are also likely to support the general, he said, giving him enough votes to beat Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Opponents of Dr Habibie have been given ammunition by testimony before parliament that his main campaign manager, Mr A.A. Baramuli, tried to exert undue influence over Finance Minister Bambang Subianto and allegedly organised a cover up of a scam involving Bank Bali.

In what has become known as Baligate, more than 546 billion rupiah was siphoned out of central bank payments to the nationalised Bank Bali to a company linked to a now-sacked Golkar treasurer.

Domestic outcry over the loss of East Timor and the humiliation of allowing foreign soldiers in have also eroded Dr Habibie's credibility.

For Gen Wiranto too, the question remains whether international outcry over his possible complicity in East Timor might derail his presidential bid or boost his nationalist credentials.

Investigators uncover indications of fraud

Jay Solomon, Jakarta -- An investigation into a politically charged banking scandal here has uncovered "numerous" indications of fraud, as well as the transfer of millions of dollars to senior Indonesian officials and politically connected individuals, an audit by the US accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers says.

The report also says Bank Indonesia, the country's central bank, failed to cooperate sufficiently with the investigation. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which are leading a $43 billion bailout package for Indonesia, have stated they won't release new funds to the country until the financial scandal is satisfactorily resolved.

Indonesia's financial markets were roiled last month by banking regulators' reports that 546 billion rupiah ($66.6 million) was siphoned out of the recently nationalized Bank Bali to a company linked to President B.J. Habibie's ruling Golkar party. The company, PT Era Giat Prima, is headed by Golkar's vice treasurer, who contends the funds were earned through a legal "debt collection" service. Golkar Chairman Akbar Tanjung, meanwhile, said none of the money was transferred into the party's coffers.

Indicators of fraud

The Pricewaterhouse audit, which was commissioned by the Indonesian government and the IMF, however, stated the two-week investigation "uncovered numerous indicators of fraud, noncompliance, irregularity, misappropriation, undue preferential treatment, concealment, bribery, and corruption" in the transaction, despite being granted only "limited access to information." In particular, the report highlights how rules governing Indonesia's loan-guarantee program had been breached by government officials in the Bank Bali case. Under the program, the government is obligated to repay all loans owed by shuttered Indonesian banks to third parties, in this case Bank Bali. But the report highlights that senior members of the Indonesian government assisted in channeling the funds to the Golkar-linked party.

Pricewaterhouse says Indonesia's loan-guarantee program, because of the government's lack of resources, offers "a high fraud risk scenario."

Pricewaterhouse also says it made every attempt to trace the 546 billion rupiah, as required by the IMF and Indonesian government, in its audit. Opposition parties have charged that senior members of Golkar were attempting to use the funds to boost Mr. Habibie's hopes of re-election in November -- an accusation that party denies. Golkar also says officials involved returned the 546 billion rupiah they received to Bank Bali.

Funds to more than 100 accounts

Pricewaterhouse states, however, that its audit uncovered that the Golkar-linked company transferred the funds to more than 100 accounts. Among these included "senior public officials and senior political party members." It also said the sources who returned the entire 546 billion rupiah were "not identical" to those who received them.

Umar Juoro, a senior economic adviser to Mr. Habibie, who has yet to see the audit, says the government will continue to push through the probe regardless of how sensitive it is.

In an interview in Auckland, New Zealand, Indonesia's top economic minister, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, voiced the same view. "We will go down to the bottom of it, and take necessary action to rectify the problem" at Bank Bali, he said.

A vice chairman of Golkar, Marzuki Darusman, said his party couldn't yet comment on the audit. He and other members of Golkar have threatened to dump Mr. Habibie as the party's presidential candidate in November if the Bank Bali affair wasn't resolved.

UK ministers under fire over deals

London -- British ministers were under fire Wednesday after it emerged that millions of pounds of public money had been used to help Indonesia buy jets and secure industrial contracts, newspapers reported.

The Times newspaper said 130 million pounds (195 million dollars) of public funds was used to help the Indonesian military -- accused of orchestrating a campaign of violence against supporters of independence in East Timor -- buy Hawk fighter planes from Britain.

The revelation will further embarrass Foreign Secretary Robin Cook whose "ethical" foreign policy was challenged by human rights activists after a British-made plane was used to intimidate East Timorese ahead of a referendum on the future of the territory.

Britain's Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD) underwrote payments to British Aerospace after the Indonesian economy ran into trouble last year. The money was used to help Jakarta reschedule payments on contracts for Hawks, The Times said.

Britain suspended export licences for the sale of arms, including nine Hawk jets, to Indonesia at the weekend, in the wake of the bloodshed in East Timor.

Meanwhile, the Guardian daily said Britain's National Audit Office was considering an investigation after it emerged that Trade Secretary Stephen Byers had overruled civil servants and given the go ahead for financial help to Indonesia.

The daily said according to official documents, Byers ignored warnings from senior civil servants who refused to back the help because they deemed Indonesia too risky for the investment of taxpayers' money.

Byers authorised the payment, however, "in view of the importance we attach to our relations with Indonesia," the Guardian reported.

Byers ordered the ECGD to underwrite a 1.1-million-dollar loan for a British engineering company, Va Tech Reyrolle Projects, to help the company win business building new power transmission lines in Indonesia.

The Guardian said Byers' decision was taken on July 19 against a background of a virtual moratorium on financial support for Indonesia amid alarm that Britain was already exposed should the country default on heavy loans.

Britain's dealings with Indonesia have been the subject of scrutiny since early September when pro-Jakarta militia went on the rampage, killing and driving out supporters of independence for the territory. The violence follows a UN-organised ballot on the future of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975, in which East Timorese voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence.

Indonesian leader voices 'feelings'

Jakarta -- After a week of chaos and terror in East Timor, Indonesia's powerful military boss sang "Feelings" on Sunday to show why he can't walk away from the independence-minded province.

To cheers from retired military officers at a party, Defense Minister Gen. Wiranto dedicated the song to foreign journalists: "I hope you have the same feelings, like me, for East Timor." His eyebrows arched in restrained emotion, Wiranto held the microphone in both hands and stood stiffly in a yellow batik shirt and crooned as a band played the 1975 hit popularized by Paul Williams:

"Feelings, nothing more than feelings, trying to forget my feelings of love." "Teardrops, rolling down on my face, trying to forget my feelings of love. Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it ... I wish I've never met you, girl; you'll never come again." He hit all the high notes.

Wiranto earlier said Indonesia's army, which invaded East Timor in 1975, is profoundly attached to the former Portuguese colony and those residents who backed Indonesian rule.

The international community has condemned the military for aiding and directing anti-independence militias in a murderous rampage against East Timorese who voted in a UN-backed referendum to break away from Indonesia.