UN official in E. Timor blasts Jakarta on gangs

UN official in E. Timor blasts Jakarta on gangs

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters): The senior UN official in East Timor
rebuked Indonesia on Friday for hesitation and prevarication in
moving against violent gangs he said should be disarmed, broken
up and their leaders arrested.

"Where resolution and a certain degree of ruthlessness would
seem to be required we are witnessing hesitation and
prevarication," Sergio Vieira de Mello told the UN Security
Council during an open debate.

At the same meeting, the United States and Britain threatened
again to cut aid to Jakarta at an upcoming meeting of donor
nations in Tokyo if Indonesia fails to make progress on
dismantling the militia.

"The U.S. and the international community's attitude towards
the timing and substance of that meeting will certainly be
influenced by the government of Indonesia's actions in the next
couple of weeks," American envoy Nancy Soderberg said.

British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said his country was
ready to help Indonesia "but would find it hard to do so if there
is a no real progress in West Timor."

Soderberg also said she was disturbed by comments from some
Indonesia officials who said the army, which organised the gangs,
could not disarm them by force.

Indonesia has promised to move forcefully against the militia,
who went on the rampage a year ago to protest an East Timorese
vote for independence. They fled to Indonesian West Timor,
herding refugees in front of them and have been conducting raids
into the east half of the island since then.

Vieira de Mello, the head of the UN Transitional
Administration in East Timor, known as UNTAET, rebutted
allegations that refugees in West Timor posed a problem.

The dispute also could not be called a civil war among East
Timorese "as some in Indonesia increasingly attempt to paint the
problem," he said.

"The threat faced is of militia, operating with impunity in
West Timor, able freely to launch armed interventions across an
international boundary into West Timor," he said.

Vieira de Mello said he sympathised with Indonesian President
Abdurrahman Wahid, who was saddled with the "dreadful legacy" of
previous governments.

"Nonetheless, the repercussions are likely to be more unrest
and loss of innocent lives in West and East Timor unless the root
of the problem is recognised and eradicated," he said.

Abdurrahman, in Brasilia on Friday, said authorities planned
to arrest militia leader Eurico Guterres in the next few days
after obtaining a court order.

Guterres was watching a Sept. 24 ceremony to disarm the
militia in West Timor after which his gangs ran wild, threatening
UN officials there.

Vieira de Mello said that after high-ranking Jakarta officials
left, Guterres appeared in the midst of the police compound in
which the ceremony had been held.

"Subsequently, he and several hundreds of his followers
agitated in and outside the station while my colleagues were
hidden under armed protection in a room at the station for their
own safety," he said.

De Mello noted there had been no arrests in the deaths of
three UN refugee agency workers killed by a mob earlier in
September in the West Timor town of Atambua.

"There could hardly be a more eloquent demonstration of
Indonesia's current inability -- or refusal -- to deal
effectively with the problem," he said. "This is impunity running
rampant."