RI military searching for killers of NZ soldier

JAKARTA (JP): Two Army companies have been deployed to the East Timor border to hunt down militiamen who murdered a New Zealand member of the UN peacekeeping force in East Timor, a senior Indonesian Military (TNI) officer said on Tuesday.

"This morning at dawn, TNI ambushed two men who tried to cross the border from East Timor. But they fled. They were clearly unarmed," Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri, the chief of the Udayana Military Command, said by phone from Denpasar, Bali.

The hunt so far had produced nothing, Kiki added.

Private Leonard William Manning, 24, was shot twice on Monday morning when New Zealand troops tracking a group of unidentified armed men in the rugged town of Fato Mean, about two kilometers from the Indonesian border.

Manning was the first combat casualty since the UN peace enforcement team arrived in the former Indonesian territory in September.

The incident came amidst a chorus of criticism against Indonesia for failing to control pro-Indonesia armed East Timorese militiamen who still roam freely in West Timor.

Kiki, who oversees security in Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara, said the killing was "probably" the work of "ex-militia fighters from West Timor who infiltrated" the UN- administered territory.

The attack could be connected with an investigation of militia leader Eurico Guterres and former spokesman for pro-integration supporters Basilio Dias Araujo in the East Nusa Tenggara capital of Kupang on Monday, he said.

The two are among 33 East Timorese under investigation for their alleged involvement in last year's violence in the former Indonesian province.

"Yesterday (Monday) in Kupang, there were some 3,000 people protesting against the questioning. They expressed their disappointment that it is only the pro-integration people who have been subjected to investigation," Kiki said.

A local reporter in Kupang said the questioning at the provincial prosecutor's office was halted several times on Monday as Eurico had to go outside to calm his supporters who were trying to ransack the building.

In Bangkok, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab promised that Indonesia would investigate and hunt those responsible for Manning's killing.

"We deplore the incident and we would like to see this accident not happen again. We will do our part to investigate, (but) let's see first who is the actor", Alwi said on the sidelines of a 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministerial meeting.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff said he would meet Alwi during a meeting later this week to voice New Zealand's concern over the death, Reuters reported.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said in Wellington: "We've lost a young soldier and I just feel very shocked and upset for the family."

East Timorese leader Jose Ramos-Horta accused the Indonesian army of allowing West Timor to be used as a base for aggression against East Timor and the United Nations.

"One single soldier killed for us, of course it's a shock, but for Indonesia probably it is not", added Ramos-Horta, who is part of an East Timorese delegation at the ASEAN talks in Bangkok. (byg/mds)