Thorough checks

JAKARTA (JP): Policemen search for weapons inside a hut in a refugee camp near the East Nusa Tenggara capital of Kupang.

East Timor militia leader Joanico Cesario and his men reportedly surrendered on Friday two automatic weapons, 370 rounds of ammunition and seven bullet magazines in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, as police stepped up their operation to disarm militiamen.

Antara reported that the police also seized four grenades and dozens of homemade guns during a sweeping operation against pro- Indonesia militias in Belu regency.

Police said they seized 21 standard military weapons, 950 assembled guns and 16 grenades in the two days of Operasi Tuntas (Operation Thorough) to disarm the East Timor militias in East Nusa Tenggara.

The operation was launched after the militias were given three days to voluntarily surrender their weapons.

Indonesia has promised to the United Nations Security Council to disarm the militias, which have been blamed for the killing of three UN relief workers and of terrorizing more than 100,000 East Timorese in refugee camps in West Timor.

Cesario was quoted by Antara as saying that he did not know how many more firearms the militia were in possession of.

He said he believed that more militias would surrender their weapons if the government gave more attention to the fate of the militiamen and refugees still languishing in squalid camps. (edt)