Cabinet set to discuss alleged Interfet trespass

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is pondering whether to lodge a protest against Australia over territorial violations committed by its troops serving in the International Force for East Timor (Interfet), a minister said on Tuesday.

After accompanying President B.J. Habibie to a meeting with leaders of the United Islamic Front Muslim organization, State Secretary/Minister of Justice Muladi said the Indonesian government "should raise a strong protest" against Australia.

"We will talk about this in a Cabinet meeting tomorrow (Wednesday)," Muladi said.

The minister was responding to reports that an Interfet Black Hawk helicopter landed on Kisar island in Maluku during a chase of a boatload of pro-Jakarta militias fleeing East Timor over the weekend.

Some 3,000 members of militia groups fled to Kisar, some 50 kilometers north of East Timor, when Interfet forces arrived in the former Portuguese colony two weeks ago.

The incident followed the arrest of an Australian who was using a UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) visa to enter Irian Jaya. Local police said they found he was in possession of, among other things, political documents related to Irian Jaya separatist movements.

Muladi, a professor of law, denounced Australia over a series of pursuits which were waged in an arbitrary manner.

"I think the UN (troops) should not have done it. There is an international law which must be respected," he said.

Relations between the two countries have worsened since Australia led an international campaign for a peacekeeping force in East Timor. Australia now heads Interfet, which groups 7,500 troops coming from a dozen countries.

The Indonesian Military (TNI) warned recently that it would stave off any efforts made by Interfet to chase militias across the border into the western half of Timor island.

China's state media cautioned Australia on Tuesday against extending peacekeeping operations into the western half of Timor island, saying such an act would go beyond the UN mandate and risk confrontation with TNI.

"By asserting its right of pursuit into Indonesia, Australia may have gone too far," the English-language China Daily said in an editorial.

The editorial criticized Australian defense minister John Moore for refusing on Sunday to retract earlier statements that Interfet might pursue militias into the western half of Timor island, despite a mandate which "stops at the border".

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was expected to propose later on Tuesday about 10,000 peacekeepers and an unspecified number of civilians to run East Timor during a transitional phase before independence.

Reuters quoted UN officials as saying Annan's report to the Security Council, which was delayed from Monday, sets out plans for a UN administration in the former Portuguese colony that is expected to last for at least a year until local elections take place.

Annan was to recommend some 9,000 military personnel plus some 1,300 civilian police in the peacekeeping operation.

Refugees

The United States promised on Tuesday to help the Indonesian government repatriate East Timorese who fled their ravaged homeland following the Aug. 30 self-determination ballot.

U.S. Deputy State Secretary Harold Hongju Koh told reporters after a meeting with East Nusa Tenggara Governor Piet Alexander Tallo in Kupang that the U.S. would give a security guarantee to East Timorese refugees who wish to return home.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and Poverty Eradication Haryono Suyono said on Monday 150,000 out of some 250,000 East Timorese sheltered in the western half of Timor island wanted to be repatriated. The rest will be relocated to transmigration areas across the country.

Koh was accompanied by Director of Policy and Planning for Asia and Far East Karen Brooks.

During their visit, the American delegation also visited the local military headquarters to inspect a warehouse where various weapons seized from militia members were kept. They included 11 M-16 and AK-47 semiautomatic rifles, 50 homemade pistols and eight grenades.

Also stored were 27 cars belonging to UNAMET, which were stolen by prointegration militias.

In their visit to a refugee camp in OEpoi sports hall, the American envoys found many refugees who wished to move back to East Timor although they knew their homes were destroyed during the rampaging violence early last month.

In Ujungpandang, an East Timor prointegration group, called the Nation's Defenders Front (FBS), protested on Tuesday a statement by Minister of Health Farid Anfasa Moeloek, who said there were enough medical supplies for East Timor refugees in the western half of Timor island for up to seven months.

"The minister's statement was baseless, because our mission there found many community health centers and hospitals fell short of medicine. Many refugees are suffering from diseases such as diarrhea and malaria," FBS spokesman, Marlin Lopez da Cruz, said.

Meanwhile, senior journalist and director of the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI), Goenawan Mohamad, called on Interfet to build good relations with journalists, including local ones, who are working in East Timor.

"We are more concerned about a lack of opportunities to gather facts in East Timor... The absence of a security guarantee and unfriendly behavior displayed by Interfet troops have originated news without validity, and this has only fanned enmity between Indonesia and Australia," Goenawan said in a statement. (27/prb/amd)