East and West in Timor borderline<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI: Life in East Timor is an enduring catastrophe.
\nRoughly 80,000 homes were destroyed in the violence unleashed by
\npro-Jakarta militias, backed by the Indonesian Army, last year,
\nvery few of which have been rebuilt.<\/p>\n
Much of the infrastructure is gone and most of the population
\nremains unemployed. The Timorese desperately need foreign
\nassistance to help them rebuild their country.<\/p>\n
Foreign investors, of course, are unenthusiastic because of
\nthe situation created by frequent cross-border raids. The United
\nNations refugee operations in that part of the island have been
\nbrought to a dead halt; the border is held precariously by the
\n7000 UN peacekeeping troops.<\/p>\n
The problem is obviously with the Indonesian Army which
\ndoesn't seem interested in keeping its part of the deal. There
\nhas been no effort to disarm the militias or even to rein them
\nin, without which their stranglehold on the refugees remaining in
\nthe camps in West Timor cannot be broken.<\/p>\n
The fear of reprisal is undoubtedly being kept alive. The
\ncapital, Dili, is not far from the border and was a renegade
\nstronghold before independence. Tensions also exist between the
\nrefugees that returned, loyalties suspect, and those who remained
\nbehind.<\/p>\n
The installation of a universal franchise regime will go some
\nway in alleviating these tensions, by giving a voice to all
\nparties, but before that some kind of arrangement has to be
\nreached with the militias. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has
\nspoken to Abdurrahman Wahid at the millennium summit; the
\nIndonesian President must have given his usual soporific
\nassurances.<\/p>\n
There is a question mark over how much influence Abdurrahman
\nWahid has over the Indonesian Army which he needs for all kinds
\nof other paramilitary situations. East Timor will take some time
\nto raise its own troops and even then may not be able to
\neffectively counter the Indonesian Army's proxy aggression. The
\nonly answer, therefore, is international pressure on Jakarta.
\nPlus some money for East Timor.<\/p>\n
-- The Statesman, New Delhi<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/east-and-west-in-timor-borderline-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }