E. Timor faces threat from RI-based militias: UN<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Dili<\/p>\n
Anti-independence militia have launched a \"terrorist strategy\" to
\nundermine East Timor's government before the planned United
\nNations withdrawal from the country next year, a top UN
\npeacekeeper says.<\/p>\n
Brig. Gen. Justin Kelly, deputy commander of the UN
\npeacekeeping force in the world's newest nation, said the killing
\nof five former pro-independence campaigners in a mountain region
\nlast month pointed to a new militia threat from Indonesian West
\nTimor.<\/p>\n
He said a group of men recently arrested in the town of
\nLiquica claimed that they and a group which carried out those
\nkillings were sent into East Timor in December from West Timor,
\nalong with five other groups.<\/p>\n
Kelly said they named their sponsor as Master Sergeant Tome
\nDiogo, an East Timorese working from the border town of Atambua.<\/p>\n
The men said they were among some 300 trained for a guerrilla
\ncampaign against former pro-independence activists and Suco
\nchiefs, the influential local chieftains.<\/p>\n
Kelly called this a \"classical terrorist strategy of trying to
\nseparate the people from the government,\" comparing it to the
\npast campaigns of the Vietcong in Vietnam or the communists in
\nMalaya in the 1950s.<\/p>\n
\"We more or less expected this would happen but it has
\nhappened earlier than we thought,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Kelly said he thought it was more likely Diogo was working for
\nother East Timorese in this matter rather than the Indonesian
\narmy. East Timorese leaders have also said they do not believe
\nJakarta had any hand in the incursions.<\/p>\n
Pro-Jakarta militias -- allegedly organized by elements of the
\nIndonesian army -- organized a brutal intimidation campaign
\nbefore East Timor's August 1999 vote to break away from Jakarta,
\nand a revenge campaign afterwards.<\/p>\n
The militias fled across the border to West Timor before
\ninternational peacekeeping troops arrived and an estimated 3,000
\nformer militiamen are still there.<\/p>\n
Many of the militia leaders come from influential East
\nTimorese families and some are wealthy. But they face legal
\naction for crimes committed in 1999 if they return home.<\/p>\n
The infiltration, coming on top of riots late last year linked
\nto internal dissent, could herald a dangerously enlarged role for
\nEast Timor's military, some analysts say.<\/p>\n
East Timorese troops were ordered to restore order after the
\nfive killings last month despite some complaints that police and
\nnot soldiers should have been used.<\/p>\n
The fledgling army is largely composed of former Falintil
\nanti-Indonesian guerrillas who are solidly opposed to the
\nmilitiamen.<\/p>\n
Although officially non-political, they are deeply loyal to
\nPresident Xanana Gusmao but have little time for Prime Minister
\nMari Alkatiri who wields effective power.<\/p>\n
The new unrest has gone hand in hand with jostling for power
\nwithin the government and within Alkatiri's ruling Fretilin party
\nas the UN's planned withdrawal next year draws closer.<\/p>\n
In riots in Dili in December, properties linked to Alkatiri or
\nhis family, a wealthy Muslim family of Yemeni origin, were
\nspecifically targeted by the mob.<\/p>\n
Two people died and questions have been raised about the
\ncompetence of the East Timor police force in handling the
\ndisturbances.<\/p>\n
East Timor, still heavily dependent on international aid, was
\nAsia's poorest nation when it became independent last May after
\n31 months of UN stewardship.<\/p>\n
Analysts say unemployment of around 70 percent and
\ninfrastructure still barely rebuilt from the 1999 violence are
\nbound to provoke discontent.<\/p>\n
Of deeper concern is the government's limited ability to deal
\nwith the problems it faces, a situation that the militiamen in
\nWest Timor may seek to exploit.<\/p>\n
\"If I were a betting man I would say that East Timor will have
\na couple of rock and roll years ahead of it,\" said one political
\nanalyst in Dili.<\/p>\n
\"You have a police system and a justice system that do not
\nwork, which means the foundations of stability are quicksand. And
\nit opens up a big opportunity for the army to march in and say,
\n'We will do it'.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/e-timor-faces-threat-from-ri-based-militias-un-1447893297",
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