East Timor forms national army from ranks of guerrillas

East Timor forms national army from ranks of guerrillas

AILEU, East Timor (AP): After resisting Indonesia's military
occupation for 24 years, East Timor's scrappy guerrilla force was
transformed on Thursday into the core of a new national army.

In an emotional ceremony, the former rebels lowered their
guerrilla flag and replaced it with the blue-and-white banner of
the United Nations, which will oversee their transition.

"We will become the East Timor Defense Force, but the seed
from which this new force was germinated is Falintil," former
rebel commander Taur Matan Ruak told 1,700 soldiers at the
mountain town of Aileu, 50 kilometers south of the capital Dili.

Falintil is the Portuguese acronym for the East Timor National
Liberation Armed Forces, formed in the wake of the 1974 collapse
of Portugal's colonial empire.

Former colonial soldiers flocked into the force, which gave a
good accounting of itself during Indonesia's 1975 invasion of the
half-island territory.

After resisting the vastly superior Indonesian forces, they
withdrew into East Timor's rugged interior where, outnumbered and
outgunned, the insurgents used their knowledge of the land and
the near-universal support of the population to survive repeated
enemy offensives.

The guerrillas ran rings around Indonesia's U.S.-trained
special forces, called Kopassus, that tried to hunt them down.

In August, 1999, a UN-sponsored referendum ended Indonesian
rule. The independence vote sparked an orgy of violence by
militias backed by the Indonesian army, ending only with the
arrival of international peacekeepers.

East Timor is currently under UN administration during its
transition to full independence, expected next year. In the
interim, almost 8,000 U. troops are keeping the peace in the
region.

With elements of the Indonesian army still unreconciled to the
loss of the territory, the new defense force may soon be called
to prevent armed incursions from neighboring West Timor.

The ceremony in Aileu opened with a mass held by Nobel peace
laureate Bishop Carlos Belo. It was attended by East Timorese
leaders, foreign representatives and numerous East Timorese
civilians.

As soldiers and dignitaries laid wreaths at a memorial to the
dead, many wept openly.

"The commanders present here today and those who died during
the war are true heroes," independence leader Jose "Xanana"
Gusmao told the troops.

Gusmao, who commanded Falintil until the Indonesians captured
him in 1992, became a symbol of resistance to Indonesia's iron-
fisted rule. He is widely expected to become the country's first
president.

A UN-commissioned report prepared by the Center for Defense
Studies at London's King's College recommended that East Timor
should have a 3,000-strong defense force, consisting mainly of
light infantry.

The report said the force should comprise 1,500 regulars and
an equal number of reservists and would be fully operational
within two to three years.

An infantry battalion consisting of 650 soldiers is scheduled
to start training immediately.

The new force will be armed and trained with the help of
international donors, in particular from Australia and Portugal.

The army will also receive surplus equipment from 10 other
countries included the United States, Britain, Japan and
Singapore. Several nations, including New Zealand, have been
asked to train officer cadets.