Manila sends 123 troops on mission

Manila sends 123 troops on mission

MANILA (Agencies): Some 123 Filipino soldiers left Manila for
Australia on Saturday to join the multinational force given the
task of restoring order in bloodied East Timor.

The head of the Philippine humanitarian mission to East Timor,
Col. Felix Cabreros, said his group -- including engineers,
doctors and dentists -- would join other troops from neighboring
countries in Darwin.

"We are going there as a friend, we have no enemy," Cabreros
said as his troops prepared to board a C130 military plane.

"We are all noncombatant, we are not going there to fight," he
added. "We are going there to help people. We will probably
conduct medical or dental outreach, escort food, construct
buildings or roads."

Australia, which is leading the international force estimated
to number 8,000 personnel, said nine warships had left Darwin.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the shattered territory
to escape violence by militias seeking to overturn the results of
an Aug. 30 referendum which produced an overwhelming rejection of
Indonesia's offer of autonomy.

Cabreros said his troops were expected to stay in East Timor
for between three months and six months.

The Philippines has said it plans to send up to two noncombat
battalions -- numbering between 600 and 1,200 personnel -- for
the East Timor operation.

Separately, the first of two navy ships that Singapore
committed to the peacekeeping set sail for Darwin, Australia,
over the weekend.

The RSS Excellence will arrive in Darwin by Sept. 28. The
second landing ship tank is expected to leave soon.

Singapore has committed 250 personnel comprising a medical
detachment, military observers and logistics support.

In Ottawa, Canada's defense ministry announced it would be
sending two transport planes and a navy ship to East Timor as
part of the UN-backed multinational peacekeeping operation that
is about to begin in the Indonesian-ruled territory.

The C-130 Hercules planes carrying about 100 military
personnel will leave from an air base in Trenton, Ontario, in the
next few days.

A resupply ship, The Protecteur, will sail from the port of
Esquimalt, British Columbia, on Thursday, the ministry said.

However, it will take nearly three weeks for The Protecteur
and its crew of 250 personnel to reach the violence-torn
territory.

In a related development, Britain said on Sunday it was
powerless to stop delivery of three British Aerospace Hawk
trainer jets that were dispatched to Indonesia in August, before
last week's European Union arms embargo came into force.

The British Foreign Office recently demanded an explanation
from Jakarta about reports that Hawks had been spotted flying
over East Timor. Britain said later that Indonesia had pledged
not to use the planes over the territory.

Armed forces minister John Spellar told Sky News in London:
"Delivery was taken by the Indonesians before the embargo, indeed
before the current crisis.

"They are in fact in Thailand, they are actually in the
ownership of the Indonesians. But obviously in the spirit of the
embargo, we would prefer that they did not go to Indonesia."

Britain's Ministry of Defense said in a statement that the
jets were sent before the EU imposed its arms ban on Indonesia to
pressure Jakarta to respect East Timor's vote for independence.