Australia-led force leaves East Timor
Australia-led force leaves East Timor
DILI, East Timor (Agencies): The Australian-led multinational
force formally left East Timor on Wednesday and handed over to
United Nations peacekeepers, five months after going in to end a
wave of mass killings.
At a departure ceremony at the former East Timor governor's
office, now being used as UN offices, its commander said the
force had been lucky to have achieved its task with relatively
little violence.
Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove sailed out of Dili harbor around
midday, shortly after the INTERFET force's emerald-green flag was
lowered for the last time.
When the force first arrived on Sept. 20, there were still
thousands of Indonesian troops in the territory, and tension was
running high.
Asked whether it was luck that there were no clashes, he said:
"Absolute luck on a lot of occasions."
Before setting sail for Darwin in a military catamaran along
with 300 troops from Australia and Thailand, Cosgrove received a
set of military fatigues of the former resistance movement
Falintil from independence hero Xanana Gusmao.
On behalf of the East Timorese, Gusmao thanked the force,
known as INTERFET, for its action.
"It was an important act, the troops were able to avoid...
another bloodshed," Gusmao said.
Asked about his favorite memories of the assignment, Cosgrove
said: "When I saw an INTERFET soldier playing with local children
at the tenth day, when the situation was very tense."
The force, which grew to 11,000 troops, was deployed to secure
the territory after pro-Jakarta militias, backed by Indonesian
troops, reduced it to charred ruins and killed hundreds of East
Timorese in the wake of the August 30 vote for independence.
INTERFET has been replaced by a 23-nation United Nations
peacekeeping force led by Lieutenant General Jaime de los Santos
of the Philippines, although 80 percent of the UN force of around
9,000 troops will transfer from INTERFET.
The United Nations expects to administer the former Portuguese
colony for two to three years leading to independence. But
despite the general peace, the U.N. takes over amid lingering
tension over more than 100,000 refugees still in Indonesian West
Timor and concerns about reprisals by militia.
At the weekend Indonesian troops guarding the sensitive border
fired several hundred shots after a militia-sponsored attack on
refugees in East Timor.
Violence has also been increasing on the streets of the
territory, where armed gangs and inter-village fighting have
become more prevalent.
Local man Humberto Goncalves, 64, said he was glad most of the
INTERFET troops would remain in the territory as United Nations
peacekeepers because he was concerned about anti-independence
groups in West Timor, especially around its capital Kupang.
"I was in Kupang for two months and I heard that pro-
integrationists were having lots of meetings and they want to
come back and kill the people here," said Goncalves, sweeping
rubble on the streets of Dili.
Meanwhile, East Timorese refugees being housed in a Sydney
army barracks have refused to go home, starting a blockade at the
gate, police said on Wednesday.
Police were called in to try and maintain the peace at the
barracks where about 500 East Timorese refugees have been housed.
Refugee Naldo Rea said they were refusing to leave because
conditions in their homeland were still poor.
Rea said 250 refugees had created a blockade preventing buses
carrying 150 refugees leaving for Sydney airport.
Many refugees were suffering from tuberculosis and orphaned
children were in the group, he said.