Sat, 25 Sep 1999

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 Kiki Syahnakri, would be withdrawn to Jakarta on Tuesday.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conference in Dili with the Interfet commander, Kiki said the first group of some 11,500 Indonesian troops should be withdrawn by Saturday.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)