Indonesia to hand over East Timor security to UN on Monday

Indonesia to hand over East Timor security to UN on Monday

JAKARTA (Agencies): The Indonesian Military will hand over
security to the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) on
Monday, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Sudrajat said here on
Friday.

"The handover will be carried out on Sept. 27," Sudrajat
quoted Military chief Gen. Wiranto as saying.

The major general said that after the handover, the Indonesian
Military (TNI) would be gradually pulled out to leave only two
battalions to work in cooperation with Interfet.

Sudrajat identified the remaining battalions as one Army
battalion and a mixed battalion comprising a company of marines,
two companies of the Air Force's special force and three
companies of elite Mobile Brigade police.

One Indonesian battalion usually consists of about 650 troops,
while one company averages about 100 to 125 men.

Sudrajat said the commander of the East Timor Martial Law
Command, Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri, would be withdrawn to Jakarta
on Tuesday.

Speaking at a news conference in Dili with the Interfet
commander, Kiki said the first group of some 11,500 Indonesian
troops should be withdrawn by Saturday. He said the remaining
4,500 would gradually leave over the next month.

He acknowledged the Indonesian Military had not been able to
fully restore security in the territory.

East Timor has been swept by a wave of violence, unleashed by
pro-Jakarta militiamen, since a vote on self-determination there
last month.

"Security is limited in quality. We can reduce the number of
killings, burnings, looting and damage but I recognize in a
qualitative sense I cannot control the whole situation here," he
was quoted as saying by Reuters.

UN force commander Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove was accompanied at
the joint news conference by several heavily armed Australian and
British troops and UN-force helicopters flew low over the
building where it was being held.

An Australian defense spokesman was also quoted as saying on
Friday that Indonesian troops withdrawing from the former
Portuguese colony set fire to the local radio station in Dili as
well as Army barracks in the devastated capital.

"Over the same period (the past 24 hours) the TNI has
continued to withdraw, setting fire to the local radio station in
Dili and barrack accommodation," Col. Duncan Lewis told a news
briefing in Canberra.

Meanwhile, AFP reported that Australian soldiers had arrested
on Friday a man believed to be a leader of a pro-Jakarta militia.

Interfet ground forces spokesman Maj. Chip Henriss-Anderssen
said the man was Caitano da Silva, who the peacekeeping force
believes is a platoon commander in the Aitarak (Thorn) militia.

He said Da Silva was considered "a special case" by Interfet
and was being detained rather than handed over to Indonesian
police, as other militia members have been.

It is believed Da Silva is one of six militia members arrested
when soldiers from the Royal Australian Regiment raided the
Aitarak headquarters at Hotel Tropical on Wednesday.

Henriss-Anderssen said the arrest sent a clear message to the
militias.

"You cannot run, you cannot hide. Justice is here," he was
quoted as saying.

Australian forces have so far arrested several dozen militia
suspects and confiscated hundreds of weapons during street
searches.

Meanwhile, Interfet Chief of Staff Col. Mark Kelly said a
company of Filipino Rangers arrived in Dili on Friday to join the
multinational force, which is now encamped at three places in the
devastated territory.

He also said that Interfet soldiers were stationed full time
in the town of Dare, home to 37,000 refugees, just south of Dili.

That brings the number of Interfet bases to three, including
one in the capital Dili and one in the north coast city of
Baucau, East Timor's second city.

In Ambeno, an East Timorese enclave in East Nusa Tenggara,
hundreds of pro-Jakarta militiamen grouped in Sakunar continued
on Friday rooting out proindependence rivals hiding in the
forests and hills in the area. (27)