UNSC team to visit Timor in November

UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): A Security Council delegation is expected to visit Indonesia the week of Nov. 13 to evaluate operations in East and West Timor, where refugees are trapped and UN peacekeepers have been attacked.

The Indonesian government last month refused to allow the ambassadors to visit Jakarta and other locations until it had an opportunity to take action against armed gangs or militia, originally organized by the Indonesian Army in East Timor.

But Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab told reporters on Thursday that the council mission was welcome in mid-November because it would no longer investigate but observe Indonesia's progress in disarming the militia.

"This mission will be an observance of what we have done. We want them to see with their own eyes what has been achieved by the Indonesian government," he said.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said Jakarta had taken an "important action in the right direction" last week when it arrested militia leader Eurico Guterres, 27, accused of inciting violence that led to the murder of three UN relief workers in the Indonesian border town of Atambua in September.

But Holbrooke said he remained "deeply concerned" about the situation in West Timor, where tens of thousands of East Timorese are intimidated by the militia.

"None of our concerns have disappeared; nor would I even say they have abated. However, we should recognize the Indonesian government is acting in the direction they said they were moving in" with the arrest of Guterres, Holbrooke said.

Shihab said the council mission would arrive in time to witness the initial stages of registering the refugees to determine who wanted to go to other parts of Indonesia and who wanted to return home.

Shihab said resettling the refugees was an expensive project and he wanted donor countries "to participate and contribute in solving this problem" financially.

The minister said in answer to questions that he believed it was safe for UNHCR workers to return.

"(Holbrooke) may express doubts, but let time prove that security is under control and we would like to see them come back and resume their activities," Shihab said.

"From New York, you cannot sense the security situation. I was there, and I can sense that security was under control," he said.

Meanwhile a special task force set up by the government to resolve the problem of refugees in the East Timor border left Jakarta for West Timor on Friday.

The team, comprising 16 government officials and 40 members of the Indonesian Military and the National Police, has been assigned to work in the border town of Atambua for the next three months.

Meanwhile, East Nusa Tenggara Police Chief Brig. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika said on Thursday said the investigation of the deaths of three UN relief workers in Atambua was nearing completion.

"We are already preparing the dossiers to be submitted to the state prosecutors," Pastika said in Denpasar, capital of Bali.

Police have evidence to prosecute six suspects, he said.

On disarming the militias, police have seized 85 standard rifles, 1,100 hand-made guns, 46 grenades and 8,000 bullets by the time the operation was halted on Tuesday, he said. (zen/01)