1,000-strong militia recruited in E. Timor

DILI (JP): Around 2,900 pro-integration residents of Maubara in Liquisa regency have armed themselves with traditional weapons as they brace for possible attacks from those who want independence from Indonesia.

This development occurred as the military command in East Timor finalized its recruitment of a 1,000-strong civilian militia.

"It's not true that the militia is being readied to fight anti-integration groups. We are arming them with batons to help us secure East Timor, not to fight (anti-integrationists)," East Timor Military chief Col. Tono Suratman said.

He said that the 1,000 new Wanra recruits, the acronym for people's resistance, were selected out of 1,500 applicants.

Members of the militia will be signed to a one-year contract and receive a monthly salary of Rp 200,000 (US$24).

Applicants came from 13 regencies in East Timor, Tono said, adding that they would strengthen the military's already 13,000- strong force in the province.

"I don't want to talk much, but one thing that is certain is that Wanra is needed for security," Suratman said. He added the new recruits would undergo military training for two weeks starting on Monday.

Meanwhile, some 45 kilometers west of here, 2,890 youths from six villages in the Maubara subdistricts of Vatuboro, Guguleur, Vabikinia, Maubaralisa, Gisu and Lisadila, have armed themselves with poisonous arrows, machetes, spears and other traditional weapons.

Calling themselves "Red and White Arrow Troops", the villagers claim they are bracing for war.

"We are ready to die under the red and white flag (the colors of the Indonesian flag). Once integrated, we will remain integrated," said one villager.

"We don't want to live under the colonialism of Portugal anymore. Their 450 years of rule in East Timor left us with nothing but poverty, stupidity and backwardness," Joaquim Dos Santos, the section commander of troops in Vatuboro, told journalists on Saturday at the Loes transmigration site in Vatuboro.

"Integration for us is absolute. For that, we'll always be ready, anytime and anywhere, to fight to keep it that way ... until our last drop of blood. Live or die, we'll stand beneath the red and white," he said.

Joaquim said the villagers had begun preparing themselves for war last November, after becoming "fed up" with terrorism and intimidation from anti-integrationists.

"Pro-independence Timor Leste activists come to villagers' houses at night asking for money. If their demands are not met, they tell the villagers they will be attacked by Falintil (separatists)," Joaquim alleged.

The latest build up of militias in Maubara has reportedly caused villagers to evacuate to Liquisa's town center and Dili. Residents said they were still too traumatized by the past civil war to be able to witness a war between anti and pro- integrationists.

Carlito, a villager whose father was killed by the pro- independence Fretilin resistance group during the 1975 civil war, said that he did not want another civil war.

"In the end it will always be the people who suffer," he said.

According to Joaquim, around 50 people have left Vatuboro. He said that those who left were pro-independence.

Commenting on the divisions developing among civilians, Leoneto Martins, a regent in Liquisa, said he would hold dialogs in order to bring different groups toward reconciliation.

"Otherwise how can we solve our problems?" he asked.

The government made the bombshell announcement recently that it would grant East Timor independence from Indonesia if its offer of wide-ranging autonomy was rejected as the solution to the 23-year dispute over the territory's sovereignty.

Following the announcement, reports emerged of developing divisions between those who sought independence and those who wished to remain integrated with Indonesia. In some cases, these differences have led to casualties. (33/aan)