TNI kills four Falintil members in clash<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Military (TNI) troops killed four
\nmembers of the proindependence armed wing Falintil in an evening
\nclash in Dili on Friday.<\/p>\n
The incident broke days of silence which prevailed in the
\nterritory since the military emergency status was imposed there
\non Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Head of the Security Restoration Operation Command Maj. Gen.
\nKiki Syahnakri told Antara his troops opened fire on the Falintil
\nwho defied an order to stop harassing people fleeing the
\nterritory.<\/p>\n
Except for the clash, East Timor was relatively quiet on the
\nday when the United Nations evacuated more of its staff,
\nmaintaining a skeleton presence in the territory.<\/p>\n
Spokesman for the command, Col. Willem Rampangilei, told The
\nJakarta Post by phone from the East Timor capital of Dili on
\nFriday night that looting had stopped because there was \"nothing
\nleft to be looted\".<\/p>\n
The command has begun a search for murder victims reported by
\nthe media, Willem said. With only a handful of journalists
\nremaining in Dili and the telecommunications network not yet
\nrestored, there is a near total media blackout in the territory.<\/p>\n
Willem confirmed reports that 29 people had been injured in
\nSuai on Tuesday, but denied that 12 of them had died. He also
\nsaid no priests or nuns were among the victims.<\/p>\n
East Timor plunged into turmoil following last week's
\nreferendum in which the people overwhelmingly rejected wide-
\nranging autonomy within Indonesia, which was tantamount to a vote
\nfor independence. Rights organizations have estimated the death
\ntoll in the territory at thousands.<\/p>\n
AFP reported minor violence marked the evacuation of local UN
\nMission in East Timor (UNAMET) staff from their headquarters in
\nDili earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
The news agency quoted UNAMET officials and eyewitnesses as
\nsaying that a group of proautonomy militiamen broke into a
\nschoolyard next to the UN compound and vandalized vehicles parked
\nthere.<\/p>\n
\"The militia are angry because local UN staff have been taken
\nout,\" said Lindsay Murdoch of The Sydney Morning Herald, one of
\nthe few journalists remaining in the compound.<\/p>\n
Soldiers meant to be guarding the compound did nothing to
\nprevent the incident, although military leaders later dispersed
\nthe militia, UNAMET spokesman David Wimhurst said at the
\nmission's office in Darwin, Australia.<\/p>\n
A source inside the compound told AFP by telephone the
\nmilitiamen and soldiers entered the parking lot as three convoys
\nof UN staff left for the airport and shots were fired.<\/p>\n
\"We got the convoys out. Some Aitarak (militia) boys are in
\nthe car park next door; right now it's a fairly tense situation,\"
\nUN staff member Brian Kelly said.<\/p>\n
Willem denied the incident took place, saying UNAMET chief Ian
\nMartin \"praised the Indonesian Military troops for their
\nprofessionalism\" during the evacuation.<\/p>\n
Two Australian C130 Hercules military transports landed in
\nDarwin later in the day carrying about 160 people, mainly East
\nTimorese UN staff. Evacuation flights were scheduled to continue
\nthroughout the day.<\/p>\n
\"The operation so far has gone smoothly; there were no
\nproblems in moving our convoy from the compound to the airport,\"
\nWimhurst said.<\/p>\n
Kelly said the decision to evacuate UN staff was taken in
\nlight of a deteriorating security situation and dwindling
\nsupplies.<\/p>\n
The UN compound was home to some 2,000 refugees a few days
\nago, but many have fled into the nearby hills fearing a massacre
\nonce the UN pulled out.<\/p>\n
UN officials in Darwin said about 50 international UN staff
\nstill remained in East Timor.<\/p>\n
Genocide<\/p>\n
From Lisbon, Reuters reported that visiting East Timorese
\nspiritual leader Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo called on the
\nUnited Nations Security Council on Friday to act urgently to halt
\nthe \"genocide\" in the territory.<\/p>\n
The Roman Catholic bishop said international organizations,
\nparticularly the Security Council, had to intervene to \"save
\nwhatever could be saved\" in East Timor.<\/p>\n
The bishop, who was met at Lisbon airport by Portuguese
\nPresident Jorge Sampaio and Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, said
\ninternational peacekeeping forces were needed in the former
\nPortuguese colony to restore order and protect the defenseless
\ncivilian population.<\/p>\n
\"The situation is one of genocide with a cleaning out of the
\nvillages and towns of their inhabitants,\" he said in a statement
\nupon his arrival.<\/p>\n
The bishop, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his work
\non behalf of East Timor, was himself forced to flee his home in
\nDili when it was attacked by militias. He first took refuge in
\nthe East Timor town of Baucau before escaping to Australia on
\nTuesday.<\/p>\n
Belo, who will travel on to Rome to brief Pope John Paul on
\nthe situation in East Timor, said the UN High Commissioner for
\nRefugees and the International Red Cross must also establish a
\npresence in East Timor as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
He said the fact that thousands of East Timorese, both those
\nwho had voted for independence and those who opposed it, were
\nbeing transported by Indonesia to the western part of the island
\nof Timor raised his eyebrows.<\/p>\n
\"I do not know what the strategy of Indonesia is,\" he said,
\nreferring to the mass deportations. (lem\/amd)<\/p>",
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