The right thing to do in East Timor

If there is not an end to the slaughter in East Timor, the international community must bring its combined pressure to bear on Jakarta to step aside and allow an international peacekeeping force to reestablish order. If it resists, economic sanctions could be imposed to force Jakarta's hand.

The badly damaged Indonesian economy is vulnerable to the withdrawal of Western aid, and Australia and the United States are already threatening to cut off their bilateral assistance.

For the moment, most talk along these lines are mere threats; the Western countries are well aware of the debilitating effects of a destabilized Indonesia.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country with a population of 220 million, and its thousands of islands straddle one of the most strategic waterways in the world. There are also worries about weakening President B.J. Habibie, who has shown a commitment to democracy and political reform and has taken the country through a recent general election.

But as it stands, things are largely in the hands of the Indonesian military. They appear to have trained and armed the anti-independence militias and set them loose, and have joined them in the bloodbath, partly to set an example to other proindependence-minded people not to follow the lead of the East Timorese.

The military will be making a serious error of judgment if it thinks it can engineer a genocide in East Timor and get away with it. And even if the crack troops sent in by General Wiranto, the military chief and defense minister, to restore order are successful, Indonesia's troubles will be far from over.

It is in Indonesia's best interest to stop the killing now, allow international peacekeepers in and keep to the agreement to grant East Timor its independence.

-- The Bangkok Post