Militias leave E. Timor, lose support of Army: UN
Militias leave E. Timor, lose support of Army: UN
DILI (AP): After arming and organizing the murderous militias that devastated East Timor last year, the Indonesian army appears to have cut its support for the gangs, a top UN peacekeeper said on Wednesday.
Australian Brig. Ken Gillespie, who heads UN's peacekeeping operations along East Timor's border, said that groups of armed militiamen who had infiltrated into the territory are gradually withdrawing into Indonesian-held West Timor.
Gillespie said that Indonesia's military, which is known by its acronym TNI, appeared to be cracking down on militia organizations in West Timor.
"There's a new card game being played in West Timor and their patronage from some elements of the TNI is under threat," Gillespie said.
He said some of the estimated 100 paramilitaries operating in East Timor were leaving the territory due to a loss of logistical support from across the border.
Gillespie said Indonesia's army withdrew its backing for the gangs after a militia mob killed three UN foreign aid workers in West Timor in September.
In the past few months, clashes between militiamen and UN peacekeepers in East Timor have left two foreign soldiers and several gang members dead.
The militias were initially set up by Indonesia's army early last year as a counterbalance to popular support for East Timor's independence movement.
After a UN-sponsored ballot on Aug. 30, 1999, that saw the majority of people vote to break away from Indonesia, the gangs rampaged through the territory killing hundreds of people and forcing hundreds of thousands of others to flee their homes and seek shelter in neighboring West Timor.
A few weeks later, the militias were forced out of East Timor by international troops.
Since then militia gangs have used a string of refugee camps in West Timor as safe havens and bases for border incursions.
The United Nations has demanded that Indonesia disarm the gangs and last month police and soldiers in West Timor confiscated hundreds of weapons.
Under intense international pressure, the Indonesian government pledged to disarm the paramilitaries.
Gillespie said the peacekeepers in East Timor had no way of knowing if the reports of continuing disarming were true. "We know there's an operation going on but we don't know how well armed the militia were. We've been told that anywhere between 45 and 90 percent of arms have been retrieved but I would say it would be at the lower end of that scale," said Gillespie.