TNI kills four Falintil members in clash

TNI kills four Falintil members in clash

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Military (TNI) troops killed four
members of the proindependence armed wing Falintil in an evening
clash in Dili on Friday.

The incident broke days of silence which prevailed in the
territory since the military emergency status was imposed there
on Tuesday.

Head of the Security Restoration Operation Command Maj. Gen.
Kiki Syahnakri told Antara his troops opened fire on the Falintil
who defied an order to stop harassing people fleeing the
territory.

Except for the clash, East Timor was relatively quiet on the
day when the United Nations evacuated more of its staff,
maintaining a skeleton presence in the territory.

Spokesman for the command, Col. Willem Rampangilei, told The
Jakarta Post by phone from the East Timor capital of Dili on
Friday night that looting had stopped because there was "nothing
left to be looted".

The command has begun a search for murder victims reported by
the media, Willem said. With only a handful of journalists
remaining in Dili and the telecommunications network not yet
restored, there is a near total media blackout in the territory.

Willem confirmed reports that 29 people had been injured in
Suai on Tuesday, but denied that 12 of them had died. He also
said no priests or nuns were among the victims.

East Timor plunged into turmoil following last week's
referendum in which the people overwhelmingly rejected wide-
ranging autonomy within Indonesia, which was tantamount to a vote
for independence. Rights organizations have estimated the death
toll in the territory at thousands.

AFP reported minor violence marked the evacuation of local UN
Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) staff from their headquarters in
Dili earlier in the day.

The news agency quoted UNAMET officials and eyewitnesses as
saying that a group of proautonomy militiamen broke into a
schoolyard next to the UN compound and vandalized vehicles parked
there.

"The militia are angry because local UN staff have been taken
out," said Lindsay Murdoch of The Sydney Morning Herald, one of
the few journalists remaining in the compound.

Soldiers meant to be guarding the compound did nothing to
prevent the incident, although military leaders later dispersed
the militia, UNAMET spokesman David Wimhurst said at the
mission's office in Darwin, Australia.

A source inside the compound told AFP by telephone the
militiamen and soldiers entered the parking lot as three convoys
of UN staff left for the airport and shots were fired.

"We got the convoys out. Some Aitarak (militia) boys are in
the car park next door; right now it's a fairly tense situation,"
UN staff member Brian Kelly said.

Willem denied the incident took place, saying UNAMET chief Ian
Martin "praised the Indonesian Military troops for their
professionalism" during the evacuation.

Two Australian C130 Hercules military transports landed in
Darwin later in the day carrying about 160 people, mainly East
Timorese UN staff. Evacuation flights were scheduled to continue
throughout the day.

"The operation so far has gone smoothly; there were no
problems in moving our convoy from the compound to the airport,"
Wimhurst said.

Kelly said the decision to evacuate UN staff was taken in
light of a deteriorating security situation and dwindling
supplies.

The UN compound was home to some 2,000 refugees a few days
ago, but many have fled into the nearby hills fearing a massacre
once the UN pulled out.

UN officials in Darwin said about 50 international UN staff
still remained in East Timor.

Genocide

From Lisbon, Reuters reported that visiting East Timorese
spiritual leader Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo called on the
United Nations Security Council on Friday to act urgently to halt
the "genocide" in the territory.

The Roman Catholic bishop said international organizations,
particularly the Security Council, had to intervene to "save
whatever could be saved" in East Timor.

The bishop, who was met at Lisbon airport by Portuguese
President Jorge Sampaio and Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, said
international peacekeeping forces were needed in the former
Portuguese colony to restore order and protect the defenseless
civilian population.

"The situation is one of genocide with a cleaning out of the
villages and towns of their inhabitants," he said in a statement
upon his arrival.

The bishop, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his work
on behalf of East Timor, was himself forced to flee his home in
Dili when it was attacked by militias. He first took refuge in
the East Timor town of Baucau before escaping to Australia on
Tuesday.

Belo, who will travel on to Rome to brief Pope John Paul on
the situation in East Timor, said the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees and the International Red Cross must also establish a
presence in East Timor as soon as possible.

He said the fact that thousands of East Timorese, both those
who had voted for independence and those who opposed it, were
being transported by Indonesia to the western part of the island
of Timor raised his eyebrows.

"I do not know what the strategy of Indonesia is," he said,
referring to the mass deportations. (lem/amd)