Liquisa nearly a rebel base<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Fretilin, the East Timor armed separatist
\nmovement, had been turning the Liquisa regency into its major
\nbase camp when the military moved into the area last month, Armed
\nForces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Military intelligence reports suggested some Fretilin
\nactivities around the regency, including the possibility of an
\narmed attack to capture the area, Feisal told a hearing with
\nCommission I of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
\"They had planned to attack Liquisa. They hadn't set the exact
\ndate yet,\" Feisal said, reading from a report from the East Timor
\nmilitary command.<\/p>\n
The rebels had been planning to turn the town into their base
\ncamp, he said. \"Liquisa is very close to the capital city, Dili,\"
\nhe added.<\/p>\n
Feisal said the information about Fretilin's activities in the
\narea came from local people.<\/p>\n
He said that, given the situation in the area, the decision by
\nthe military command to send in troops to Liquisa had been
\n\"correct\".<\/p>\n
If the military hadn't acted swiftly and thoroughly, he said,
\nLiquisa may have been turned into a base for Fretilin to launch a
\ncampaign.<\/p>\n
He said that the proximity to Dili made Liquisa a convenient
\nplace for Fretilin, in order to maximize exposure to foreigners
\nvisiting Dili and, thereby, to gain publicity for their campaign.<\/p>\n
The Armed Forces (ABRI) chief was asked by legislators
\nyesterday for an explanation of the killing of six East Timorese
\nby the military on Jan. 12 in Gariana, Liquisa.<\/p>\n
Allegations that the six had been unarmed civilians have
\nprompted the Armed Forces headquarters in Jakarta to send a fact-
\nfinding team to East Timor.<\/p>\n
The National Commission on Human Rights is also conducting its
\nown investigation and plans to announce its findings later this
\nmonth.<\/p>\n
The issue dominated yesterday's hearing between Feisal and the
\nHouse's Commission I, which deals with security affairs.<\/p>\n
Feisal said the ABRI fact-finding team had returned from East
\nTimor and was now writing up its report.<\/p>\n
Council<\/p>\n
On a separate occasion yesterday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. R.
\nHartono said that he will announce today the line up of the
\nOfficers' Honorary Council who will take up the report and come
\nup with its recommendations regarding the matter.<\/p>\n
Hartono also insisted that the six killed were Fretilin
\nmembers and the investigation is looking into whether the
\ntroopers had followed proper procedures in dealing with them
\nduring the clash, Antara reported.<\/p>\n
He told reporters that the incident in Liquisa was a \"regular
\narm contact\" that frequently occurred between troopers and
\nFretilin.<\/p>\n
Feisal yesterday said that, based on the report by East Timor
\nmilitary chief, Col. Kiki Syahnakri, two of the six East Timorese
\nkilled were Fretilin members. The other four were civilians who
\nwere being recruited by Fretilin.<\/p>\n
The report, according to Feisal, underlined that the six were
\nkilled during an armed clash with troops. It refuted the
\nsuggestion, made in the foreign press, that they had been
\nordinary and unarmed villagers.<\/p>\n
The East Timor military's report stated that the local
\nmilitary command arrested four people in Liquisa on Jan. 10 who
\nwere believed to have been supplying the rebels with food they
\ncollected from Fretilin supporters in the area.<\/p>\n
Subsequent investigations confirmed their suspicion, according
\nto the report.<\/p>\n
Military intelligence had extracted information from the four
\nabout a mobilization of rebels that had been underway since Jan.
\n5 in the village of Vatuvuo, Maubara district, in Liquisa.<\/p>\n
The military estimated that 45 armed people had been deployed
\nduring the mobilization.<\/p>\n
Feisal also gave some details of the Jan. 12 clash in Gariana
\nthat led to the death of six East Timorese, again based on the
\nreport by the local military.<\/p>\n
It involved the Parkit unit, a military intelligence team, and
\nrebels numbering about 10 armed people, he said.<\/p>\n
During that clash, the military shot dead two rebels.<\/p>\n
A soldier was wounded by bullets in his chest and back.<\/p>\n
After the first contact, the military search for the rebels'
\nhideout led to the second armed contact, in which four more
\nrebels were shot dead. (swe\/emb)<\/p>",
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