Military vows to stop militia incursions

JAKARTA (JP): A senior Army general pledged on Thursday to beef up security to stop militia incursions into the East Timor enclave of Oecussi.

"TNI (the Indonesian Military) will send about two companies of reinforcement troops because there are only 52 troops now in the border area between Oecussi and East Nusa Tenggara," chief of the Udayana Military Command Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri told The Jakarta Post by phone from Denpasar, Bali.

He added that he would replace a number of military officers in the border area as they were considered to be "slow and unresponsive".

Kiki, who oversees security in Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara, was speaking after meeting with the International Force in East Timor (INTERFET) commander, Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove, in the East Timorese town of Batugade earlier in the morning.

Militias have clashed with foreign troops in the coastal enclave of Oecussi, surrounded on three sides by East Nusa Tenggara, several times recently.

Kiki said the incursions were sometimes triggered by "business motives" as militias smuggled food and other basic necessities to sell in the enclave.

"It's very difficult and expensive to get basic necessities in Oecussi, so a number of people (in East Nusa Tenggara) are tempted to bring in and sell food supplies," Kiki said.

Kiki conceded that some military personnel may have been involved.

However, he said that UN and Indonesian officials should immediately discuss the issue of cross-border trade as there was a great need for incoming supplies in several areas of East Timor.

Kiki also said that more than 170,000 East Timorese were still sheltered in refugee camps in East Nusa Tenggara.

Some 240,000 people had reportedly fled East Timor to various locations in neighboring East Nusa Tenggara after the violence which resulted following the Aug. 30 self-determination ballot.

In a related development, Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab in Jakarta expressed confidence that China and Russia would use their veto rights should the United Nations Security Council try to establish an international tribunal to try Indonesian officers allegedly responsible for the post-ballot mayhem in East Timor.

His confidence was based on a recent meeting with UN envoys during a visit to New York.

He said he told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Indonesia would prove that its own government-sanctioned commission would suffice demands for an inquiry on the violence. (byg)