Pro-Jakarta group rejects UN force in East Timor

JAKARTA (JP): Prointegration East Timorese said on Monday they rejected the presence of foreign peacekeepers in the province, urging the international community instead to send badly needed humanitarian aid for refugees.

"Thousands of East Timorese children are living with tears and sorrow at the refugee camps. They don't need peacekeepers, they only need food and medicine," Basilio Dias Araujo, spokesman for the Forum for Unity, Democracy and Justice (FPDK), said.

"It is therefore highly appreciated if the UN tries to save the lives of these children rather than taking sophisticated weapons to slaughter thousands more innocent children as happened in Kosovo," he said, referring to the Yugoslav province which was unilaterally attacked by North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in an attempt to stop human rights abuses.

FPDK is one of the leading proautonomy groups in East Timor grouped under the umbrella organization of the United Front for East Timor Autonomy.

Under mounting international pressure, the government decided late Sunday to "invite" an international peacekeeping force to East Timor to restore order in the troubled territory.

The decision was only taken after Indonesian Military chief Gen. Wiranto admitted on Saturday during his brief stop in East Timor that the military was facing "psychological constraints" in taking strict measures against rioters.

The international community and human rights activists say that hundreds have been killed and nearly 120,000 more have fled to the western half of Timor Island.

"The white men, represented by the Portuguese, destroyed the whole life of East Timorese once again after the civil war in 1975," Basilio said.

"Now thousands of East Timorese children are living in fear and sorrow, while the Portuguese are clapping their hands because they have finished the process of decolonization.

"East Timorese children are now suffering the consequences of the pleasure of the Portuguese resulting from the popular consultation that was orchestrated and manipulated by UNAMET."

Pro-Jakarta supporters have accused the UN Mission in East Timor of favoring the proindependence camps in the run-up and during the ballot on Aug. 30.

"Now is not the time anymore to blame each other or to politicize any further the life of East Timorese, now is the time to find food and medicine for the poor and innocent East Timorese children," Basilio said.

"Please, the white men, stop killing more human beings only for your own political or economic interest."

Separately, proindependence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao called on the UN to send an international peacekeeping force as quickly as possible to stop "more mass killings" in East Timor.

"There is no time to lose," Xanana said. (byg)