Anti-independence militias trying to undermine E Timor, says

Anti-independence militias trying to undermine E Timor, says
peacekeeper

Agence France-Presse
Dili

Anti-independence militia have launched a "terrorist strategy" to
undermine East Timor's government before the planned United
Nations withdrawal from the country next year, a top UN
peacekeeper says.

Brig. Gen. Justin Kelly, deputy commander of the UN
peacekeeping force in the world's newest nation, said the killing
of five former pro-independence campaigners in a mountain region
last month pointed to a new militia threat from Indonesian West
Timor.

He said a group of men recently arrested in the town of
Liquica claimed that they and a group which carried out those
killings were sent into East Timor in December from West Timor,
along with five other groups.

Kelly said they named their sponsor as Master Sergeant Tome
Diogo, an East Timorese working from the border town of Atambua.

The men said they were among some 300 trained for a guerrilla
campaign against former pro-independence activists and Suco
chiefs, the influential local chieftains.

Kelly called this a "classical terrorist strategy of trying to
separate the people from the government," comparing it to the
past campaigns of the Vietcong in Vietnam or the communists in
Malaya in the 1950s.

"We more or less expected this would happen but it has
happened earlier than we thought," he said.

Kelly said he thought it was more likely Diogo was working for
other East Timorese in this matter rather than the Indonesian
army. East Timorese leaders have also said they do not believe
Jakarta had any hand in the incursions.

Pro-Jakarta militias -- allegedly organized by elements of the
Indonesian army -- organized a brutal intimidation campaign
before East Timor's August 1999 vote to break away from Jakarta,
and a revenge campaign afterwards.

The militias fled across the border to West Timor before
international peacekeeping troops arrived and an estimated 3,000
former militiamen are still there.

Many of the militia leaders come from influential East
Timorese families and some are wealthy. But they face legal
action for crimes committed in 1999 if they return home.

The infiltration, coming on top of riots late last year linked
to internal dissent, could herald a dangerously enlarged role for
East Timor's military, some analysts say.

East Timorese troops were ordered to restore order after the
five killings last month despite some complaints that police and
not soldiers should have been used.

The fledgling army is largely composed of former Falintil
anti-Indonesian guerrillas who are solidly opposed to the
militiamen.

Although officially non-political, they are deeply loyal to
President Xanana Gusmao but have little time for Prime Minister
Mari Alkatiri who wields effective power.

The new unrest has gone hand in hand with jostling for power
within the government and within Alkatiri's ruling Fretilin party
as the UN's planned withdrawal next year draws closer.

In riots in Dili in December, properties linked to Alkatiri or
his family, a wealthy Muslim family of Yemeni origin, were
specifically targeted by the mob.

Two people died and questions have been raised about the
competence of the East Timor police force in handling the
disturbances.

East Timor, still heavily dependent on international aid, was
Asia's poorest nation when it became independent last May after
31 months of UN stewardship.