Military ends massive operation in East Timor
JAKARTA (JP): The military announced on Saturday that it had ended a massive operation to hunt down 50 separatist rebels who attacked a military outpost in Alas in the southern part of East Timor and killed three soldiers and kidnapped 13 others.
"We have apprehended the main culprits and they will soon be turned over to the police," Col. Tono Suratman, the East Timor military commander, was quoted by Antara as saying.
East Timor Police Chief Col. G.S. Timbul Silaen later said seven men were under investigation in connection with the attack.
The attack on the military outpost in Alas, in Manufahi regency, about 119 km south of Dili, took place on Nov. 9.
Two battalions deployed for the operation had been withdrawn and returned to their bases in Dili and Los Palos, and conditions in the area should gradually return to normal, Col. Suratman assured Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo during a meeting.
Belo, the 1996 joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, visited Suratman's office to express his concern at the increasing violence in the Alas district.
Belo used the occasion to call for restraint by both sides. "The church condemns any violence. If we want to live in peace, we should enter into a dialog," he was quoted as saying.
It is not immediately known whether any civilians were killed in the clashes between the military and the members of the Fretilin armed separatist movement.
Antara however reported that in the aftermath of the incident, many Alas people had fled their homes and gone into hiding in nearby jungle for fear of their lives.
Suratman said the village head, identified as Vicenti, was killed during an armed conflict in a jungle.
The village head was with the guerrilla, he said, adding that at the time of the conflict, the soldiers could not have known that it was the village head.
Suratman said that by Saturday, two soldiers remained in the hands of the guerrillas, who had also got away with several weapons.
He identified the three fatalities as chief sergeant Petrus Bere, chief private Calistro Hornai and private E. Bodi da Costa. The two abducted soldiers were privates Joao Baptista and Mateus dos Santos.
Suratman said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was assisting the military to secure the release of the two remaining soldiers from the guerrilla.
"The ICRC is recognized for its legitimacy, independence and honesty. We are grateful for their participation to come into this difficult terrain," he said, adding that for the safety of their own personnel, the ICRC was barred from entering certain areas viewed as dangerous.
Suratman said that if the Alas population were living in fear, it was because of the activities of the guerrillas and not because of the increasing presence of the security apparatus.
The military would work with the local church to convince Alas villagers that it was safe to return to their homes, he said.
Jailed Fretilin commander, Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, complained about a massive military operation in East Timor during his meeting with Indonesian reformist leader Amien Rais in his Jakarta prison on Friday.
The United Nations, which is currently mediating negotiations between Indonesia and Portugal over the future of East Timor, said on Friday that it would check the veracity of the reported violence, AFP said.
UN Secretary-General Koffi Anan "is seriously disturbed by reports of rising tensions and casualties involving civilians in certain areas of East Timor," his spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
Eckhard said the ongoing talks in New York would continue.
However, the Portuguese mission to the United Nations said that Lisbon was suspending talks this weekend until further clarification from Indonesia of reported civilian deaths in the military operations. (emb)