UN mission calls on RI to clamp down on militias

UN mission calls on RI to clamp down on militias

ATAMBUA, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): A visiting UN Security
Council mission has demanded that the Indonesian government crack
down on prointegration militias sheltering in East Nusa Tenggara
(NTT) despite claims that significant steps have already been
taken.

"Intimidation must stop," said Namibian Ambassador to the UN
Security Council Martin Andjaba, after laying flowers at the site
where three UN aid workers were murdered by militiamen on Sept.
6.

Andjaba, who led the seven-member mission, also said that an
estimated 120,000 East Timorese refugees still in Indonesian
territory had to be allowed to return home "in safety and
security".

"Some of the refugees we met were concerned about the safety
and security situation in East Timor.

"Better information is needed here to be given to the
refugees. When we were in East Timor, it was confirmed and
assurances were confirmed to us by the Timorese leaders that
there will be security and safety for refugees when they go back
there," he said.

The visit was the first to be made by UN officials since
hundreds of aid workers left the territory following the killing
of the three UN workers and an attack on the mission's
headquarters.

The Security Council and other international organizations
have called on Indonesia to disarm and disband the prointegration
militias.

In the past two months, security personnel have conducted
sweeping operations for illegal weapons. Officials claim that
most illegal arms have been confiscated.

Lt. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri, the deputy Army chief of staff who
accompanied the visiting envoys, urged international aid agencies
to return to the territory.

He said the militias had been disbanded and 90 percent of
their arms impounded.

"They still have a few weapons, so we continue to disarm
them," Kiki said.

On Wednesday the delegation visited the Haliwen refugee camp.
The tense envoys were welcomed cheerfully by the refugees in the
makeshift camp.

The camp, home to 12,000 refugees, was built in a bleak
stadium on the outskirts of Atambua, 25 kilometers (15 miles)
from the border with East Timor.

West Timor police chief I Made Mangku Pastika conceded that
the camp was also home to former pro-Jakarta militia leaders.

"What we have here is the ex-militia, they are now living
among the refugees," he told journalists. "There are some of them
in Haliwen."

Camp leaders repeated a common message: "We will return when
we can bring back the Red and White (Indonesian) flag," Augustine
Pinto and Antonio dos Santos told the envoys separately.

Pinto, who called himself the leader of the Dili branch of the
Union of Timorese Warriors (UNTAS) and a former member of Dili's
local government under Indonesian rule, said the people in
Haliwen were not ready to return.

"We will only go back if we can be guaranteed that we can live
peacefully while remaining loyal to Indonesia," Pinto said as
quoted by AFP.

UNTAS group's former East Timor militias, are blamed for the
wave of violence that devastated East Timor and left at least 600
dead after it voted for independence from Indonesia over 14
months ago.

The delegates arrived in Jakarta later in the day to continue
discussions with the Indonesian government.