UN patrol captures East Timor militiamen
UN patrol captures East Timor militiamen
CANBERRA (Agencies): An Australian army patrol has shot and
captured an armed East Timorese militiaman in one of two
gunfights near the border with Indonesian West Timor, defense
officials said on Monday.
About 15 Australian UN troops clashed with two or three
militiamen armed with automatic weapons near the town of
Batugade, about a kilometer from the West Timor border, on Sunday
afternoon, an Australian Defense department spokesman said.
"The Australian patrol ordered the militiamen to surrender
their weapons but the group fired on the patrol," the spokesman
said in a statement.
"The patrol returned fire, wounding and capturing one
militiaman. The remaining members of the group escaped towards
the border with West Timor."
No Australians were hurt, the spokesman said. The wounded man
was treated and evacuated to Dili for questioning.
Australian troops are playing a leading role in the
peacekeeping element of a UN administration in the former
Indonesian territory.
The firefight came five days after an Australian patrol killed
two armed East Timorese militia members near the border, where
tension has risen in recent weeks with an apparent upsurge in
militia activity and border incursions.
In a separate incident, another Australian patrol encountered
six or seven armed militiamen near Maliana. The spokesman said
there were signs one militiaman had been wounded in shooting.
"Follow-up operations are continuing in the area," he said.
Suspected pro-Jakarta militia shot dead a New Zealand soldier
near the town of Suai on July 24, the first combat casualty since
a UN-backed peace enforcement team landed in East Timor last
September.
Indonesia has long been under pressure to control the armed
gangs who operate across the border in West Timor, where up to
120,000 refugees remain in squalid conditions after fleeing last
year's violence when East Timor voted to quit Jakarta rule.
Amid rising tension on the border, international aid agencies
last week suspended the repatriation of East Timorese refugees
because of death threats against their staff.
A top UN official insisted On Monday that Indonesia move
faster to bring to justice military officials accused of
orchestrating the campaign of violence that devastated East Timor
last year.
"A significant number of names of perpetrators of grave
violations of human rights are known. That makes it more urgent
to have this process of justice," said Mary Robinson, the high
commissioner for human rights.
Pro-Indonesian militia gangs terrorized and destroyed much of
East Timor in the lead up to and immediately after a UN-sponsored
ballot in which the people voted for independence from Jakarta
rule.
Hundreds of thousands of people fled or were forcibly taken
across the border to Indonesian-held West Timor immediately after
the ballot results were announced. Some 90,000 East Timorese
refugees remain there in camps controlled by pro-Jakarta toughs.
East Timor voted overwhelmingly last August for independence
from Indonesia after 23 years, prompting a backlash from sections
of the Indonesian military, police and pro-Jakarta militias.