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.