Atambua returns to normal after killings

Atambua returns to normal after killings

JAKARTA (JP): While peace returned to Atambua in East Nusa
Tenggara on Sunday, pressures mounted for an independent
investigation into the killing of three United Nations workers
last week.

Churches in the town, which is close to the border with East
Timor, announced that school activities would resume on Monday,
Antara reported. Sermons also called on townspeople to maintain
peace and order.

Schools have been closed since Thursday, a day after a mob
believed to be comprising East Timorese refugees stormed the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in the town and
killed three of the organization's staff.

The attack followed the killing of an ex-militia group leader,
Olivio Moruk, one of 19 people named suspects in human rights
abuses committed in East Timor after last year's independence
ballot.

Antara also reported that hundreds of young people were riding
motorcycles to popular seaside resorts in the region, including
Gurita and Atapupu beaches.

A special envoy of Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Roni Hutagalung,
toured refugee camps in the town on Saturday on a fact-finding
mission.

Roni said the government should step up measures to tackle the
East Timor refugees, including speeding up their resettlement. He
said he would report to Megawati on his arrival in Jakarta.

East Nusa Tenggara deputy governor Johanes Pake Pani announced
after a meeting with local community leaders that humanitarian
aid for the refugees would continue. He said 500 tons of rice had
been provided for the refugees.

His statement came amid a warning by the UNHCR that its
mission would not resume work in West Timor until the security
situation there dramatically improved.

In Jakarta, visiting members of the International Crisis Group
(ICG) urged the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM)
to immediately investigate the Atambua slayings.

ICG chairman Martti Ahtisaari told a media conference at Hotel
Borobudur on Sunday it would be appropriate for the rights body
to set up an inquiry similar to the one it conducted into the
violence in East Timor last year.

Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, was speaking at the
close of a two-day ICG board of trustees meeting.

Also attending the meeting were ICG president and former
Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, former Philippine
president Fidel Ramos and head of the ICG's Indonesia office
Todung Mulya Lubis.

Ahtisaari said the group strongly supported the UN Security
Council's resolution calling on Indonesia to take immediate steps
to disarm and disband the militias in East Nusa Tenggara, and to
provide protection to refugees and humanitarian workers.

"It is imperative that the perpetrators of these murders be
brought to justice," he said.

Founded five years ago and with its headquarters in Brussels,
the ICG is a private, multinational organization committed to
strengthening the international community to anticipate and
understand conflicts as well as working at preventing and
containing them.

ICG board members include former Indian prime minister Inder
Gujral, former Israeli prime minister and 1994 Nobel Prize
laureate Shimon Peres, and renowned businessman George Soros.

On Saturday, National Police chief Gen. Rusdihardjo said in
Bandung that the murder of the UN humanitarian workers was a pure
criminal act.

"A political motive behind the bloody incident is possible,
but, so far, evidence collected by our investigation team
indicate that it was a crime," he said after installing Insp.
Gen. Chairuddin Ismail as chief of the Police Staff and Command
School, replacing Insp. Gen. Nugroho Djayusman.

Rusdihardjo acknowledged the murder had tarnished Indonesia's
image abroad, saying "the nation had been branded uncivilized".

He ruled out declaring a state of civil emergency in Atambua.

Rusdihardjo described the incident as a "sociocultural
collision" within the local community.

"Please be aware of that. The influx of East Timorese refugees
in to West Timor has apparently increased the crime rate".
(25/yac/sur)