Asia Times: Calls mount for Timor peacekeeping force



	April 24, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Calls mount for Timor peacekeeping force

JAKARTA - This week's tenuous truce between warring camps in East Timor has not diminished calls by some quarters for some sort of an international peacekeeping force in the territory.

In fact, such calls have become almost a desperate plea by groups who believe the continuing atmosphere of violence and division is wrecking the opportunity for East Timor to decide on its own future.

Some East Timorese say the time is overdue for greater political will by countries to pressure Indonesia to put a stop to internal conflict in the territory.

But, East Timorese leader Jose Ramos Horta says, the double standard of powerful countries shows in their hasty action in Kosovo, contrasted with their tolerance of violence that is destroying a society whose right to self-determination has been recognized by the United Nations itself.

While Serbia is ''bombed to the Stone Age'' for its ethnic cleansing of Kosovars, ''Indonesia receives mild rebukes for its 23-year ethnic cleansing of East Timorese,'' he says.

A vote on independence or autonomy is scheduled under United Nations auspices in July, but the escalation of violence this month between pro-integration militias and pro-independence groups and civilians has created the perception of a territory on the brink of being ungovernable.

And if East Timor does prove ungovernable, the United Nationscannot go ahead with the planned balloting. The ultimate loser would be the 800,000 people in East Timor,for whom the opportunity to finally choose their own status hasalready exacted a steep price.

Just a day after a truce was agreed upon Wednesday, gunshotswere heard once again in the East Timorese capital of Dili. Somemedia reports said four people were killed just hours after thesigning of the peace accord in Jakarta.

This latest cease-fire was signed East Timorese resistanceleader Jose Alexandre Xanana Gusmao and Leandro Isac representingpro-independence groups and Joao Tavares and Domingos Soaresrepresenting pro-integration groups.

Yet pro-integration military continue to patrol East Timor'sstreets and to conduct identification checks on residents. Largely, this is because this week's truce, witnessed by ArmedForces chief and Defense Minister Wiranto did not require thedisarming of armed groups in the territory.

In reality, though, analysts say the truce is a test of theIndonesian military's sincerity and will to rein in the pro-integration militias, numbering up to 3,000 that they are widelybelieved to be supporting. Some say they are being financially supported by the military,which also gives them arms and ammunition, though Jakarta hasdenied this.

The sense that the violence cannot really stop until an outsideforce like a UN or multinational presence comes in has beenescalating in recent months.

''East Timor has been considered as a non self-governingterritory. Its legal status is still a UN protectorate since1960,'' explained Marcelino Magno, a member of the East TimorStudy Group. ''Not only does the UN deserve to, but it is also obliged tointerfere in East Timor,'' he added.

But the momentum for such an international force has not gonethe way its supporters want to, not least because many countries,even those that criticised Indonesia for failing to stop theviolence in East Timor, do not want to offend Jakarta openly.

Indonesia has said it will not accept an internationalpeacekeeping force in East Timor before the July vote, stressingthough that is open to multinational supervision of that UN-overseen ballot.

Australia has tried to avoid offending Indonesia by saying anyforeign forces to be stationed in the territory have to beaccepted by Jakarta because ''Indonesia is the de facto ruler ofEast Timor."

Critics have lashed out at this position, saying that savinginnocent Timorese lives should come first instead of maintainingdiplomatic niceties.

Without active intervention from a force not involved in thecurrent violence, they say the military will continue to have freerein in East Timor, much as it has had since Indonesian troopsinvaded it in 1975 and Jakarta annexed it the following year.

In fact, Indonesian observers say the military's frustrationswith being sidelined by President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie indealing with East Timor are its motivation for supporting themilitias, or at least doing little to stop them.

On Apr 17, more than 20 people were killed when armed pro-integration militia went on a rampage through Dili. The nephew offormer governor Mario Viegas Carrascalao was confirmed to amongthe casualties.

Right after the incident, militia members with home-made rifleslined the front yard of the East Timor governor's office in Diliin a show of force.

''They staged the show of force in front of the governor'soffice. They demonstrated their weapons. And the authorities didnot do anything about it. How can we be convinced that theIndonesian military want peaceful solution of East Timor?'' askedHendardi, lawyer of the jailed pro-independence leader JoseAlexandre Xanana Gusmao.

The Apr 17 killings were the second major violent incident thismonth, the first being the Apr 6 massacre by pro-integrationfighters of nearly 60 people who had sought refuge in a church inLiquica district.

This incident had prompted Xanana to instruct Falintil, thearmed wing of the Conselho Nacional Resistencia de Timorese (CNST)to defend themselves against the military-backed militia.

The statement also demanded that the UN immediately sendpeacekeeping forces to the territory. But what dominated pressreports were Xanana's supposed ''war ultimatum'', which elicitedinternational criticism.

''I did not make war ultimatum. I just ask my men to make self-defense,'' Xanana said later.

Bonar Tigor Naipospos, chairman of the Indonesian Solidarityfor East Timor Peaceful Solution (Solidamor) says Xanana nevermentioned war and that his statement was more a request for help,aimed at drawing more serious attention from the United Nations.

After all, ''it is obvious that Indonesian authorities havefailed to build security there. Anarchy is growing because thearmed civilians start replacing the police role,'' said Hendardi,also with the Indonesian Association for Human Rights and LegalAid.

Data from the International Forum on Indonesia Development(INFID) shows that at least 43 cases of violence have occurredsince the Indonesia announced the independence option in January.

It says 40 people were killed, 22 were injured, three weremissing and two raped. These do not include this month'scasualties, but others say the toll is closer to 200 deaths sinceJanuary.

The question now is whether the latest truce - or at least theabsence of large-scale violence - can hold until the July vote.

(Inter Press Service)

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