TNI asked to help prevent E. Timor border skirmishes

JAKARTA (JP): The head of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), Lt. Gen. Jaime de los Santos, is calling on the Indonesian Military (TNI) to help prevent cross-border attacks into East Timor.

But during separate meetings with the TNI and government officials on Thursday and Friday, De los Santos acknowledged that the activities of militias in Indonesian territory were not connected with TNI.

"The involvement of TNI is proven to be untrue," he said after meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab here on Thursday.

"There is no involvement of TNI in terms of training or in terms of coordination," he said.

There have reportedly been 16 incidents in the last three weeks near the border between East Timor and East Nusa Tenggara. The incidents allegedly were perpetrated by prointegration militias working from the western half of Timor island.

The armed groups have killed at least one East Timorese in the incidents.

Alwi said on Friday President Abdurrahman Wahid was "concerned and unhappy" with reports of reported militia attacks from East Nusa Tenggara.

According to Alwi, the president has called on the Indonesian Military to take firm measures to disarm and prevent militias from engaging in cross-border attacks from Indonesian territory.

"He called on the minister of defense and TNI commander immediately to take necessary actions to prevent this," Alwi said.

Quoting Abdurrahman, Alwi said the government would not tolerate such illegal incidents.

"We don't want this issue to be somehow used as an excuse to say that Indonesia is not serious in handling the refugees and its relationship with East Timor," Alwi told journalists before departing for Saudi Arabia for the haj pilgrimage.

Over 100,000 refugees from East Timor remain sheltered in the western half of the island, leading to a high degree of activity along the border.

De los Santos met with TNI Commander Adm. Widodo A.S. and Udayana Military Commander Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri on Friday to discuss the issue.

TNI spokesman Air Rear Marshall Graito Usodo said Widodo was concerned about the reports of increased militia activity and pledged to evaluate the situation.

According to Graito, Widodo did not rule out the possibility of deploying more troops along the border.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post and Antara news agency late on Thursday, Kiki said TNI detected an escalation of militia activity following a congress of prointegration fighters in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Feb. 26.

Participants of the gathering agreed to form an organization called the United Timorese Heroes (UNTAS), he said.

But Kiki asserted TNI was doing its best to ensure that armed attacks did not occur along the border, saying the military was carrying out intensive patrols.

"Recently we confiscated three weapons. Two were homemade guns and one was a Mauser," Kiki said, referring to a type of rifle which was widely used during the Portuguese colonial era.

Kiki further noted that security along the border should be a shared responsibility, not merely TNI's.

"I have repeatedly appealed (to the UN authorities) to increase joint patrols in the area.

"They have all the modern equipment that can be used. They have Blackhawks (helicopters), night goggles and sophisticated radar," Kiki said.

According to Kiki, TNI has 689 soldiers deployed along the 155-kilometer border on the western half of Timor island.

"Our numbers are limited while we have a wide area to cover. The number of our troops is far smaller than the number of peacekeeping troops," he said after arriving in Jakarta on Thursday evening.

Meanwhile in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Air Rear Marshal Alimunsiri Rappe Alimunsiri, the Eastern Air Force operations commander, said that planes from the air forces of Australia and other nations were often detected violating Indonesian airspace.

He said Air Force radar had detected at least 10 illegal flights in the last two months.

The Australian government officially denied allegations last month that its planes had violated Indonesian airspace. (emf/dja/27)