Australia says RI not behind incursions in E. Timor

Australia says RI not behind incursions in E. Timor

Agencies, Sydney, Australia/Jakarta

There is no evidence that Indonesia is launching incursions into its former colony of East Timor, Australian officials said on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said reports that Indonesia's Kopassus special forces were supporting border violations by pro-Jakarta militias were untrue.

Downer also rejected claims that Australia turned down a request from the East Timor government to deploy its peacekeepers against the militias.

Downer noted that the international force in East Timor was not led by Australia but by the United Nations.

"This is a matter between the United Nations and the East Timorese," Downer told Australia's ABC Radio. "It isn't a matter that directly involves the Australian government."

Downer was responding to comments by the Labor Party's Kevin Rudd, the opposition foreign affairs spokesman, who alleged Kopassus was still backing pro-Jakarta militias.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony until Indonesia invaded in 1975, split from Indonesia in 1999 after a U.N.-supervised referendum.

Rudd claimed Canberra was ignoring emerging security threats in East Timor because it was preoccupied with the looming war with Iraq.

Rudd said the East Timorese government was "deeply concerned about the refusal of the Howard government to assist the East Timorese Defense Force in dealing directly with this domestic security threat".

Meanwhile, Jose Guterres, chief of staff to East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, said that pro-Jakarta militiamen murdered six East Timorese villagers early this month with the aim of destabilizing it.

"They did not accept the results of the 1999 referendum. The Indonesians did but they did not," Guterres told AFP by telephone from Dili.

Guterres said the militiamen now operating "have nothing to do with the Indonesian government" which ruled East Timor for 24 years up to 1999.

On January 4 about 12-15 attackers armed with M-16, SKS and G- 3 rifles killed six people in the villages of Tiarelelo and Lobano about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the border with Indonesian West Timor, said Brigadier General Justin Kelly, deputy commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor.

Reports at the time said three people were killed.

"We have detected a number of armed bands, some of them who seem to incorporate former militia members, who are conducting criminal operations in East Timor," Kelly told AFP. "It's a serious situation."

Kelly said there have been "a number of sightings" before and after the January 4 attack, suggesting the armed groups are operating in a relatively large area.