UNTAET to take over East Timor soon

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): UNTAET peacekeeping force commander Lt. Gen. Jaime de los Santos said on Tuesday that his troops would soon take over complete supervision of East Timor from Interfet.

"By the end of February, we shall take over all the sectors within East Timor," De los Santos said after a courtesy call on chief of the Udayana Military Command Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri.

The Philippine general was accompanied by the chief of the United Nations Military Observers (UNMO), Brig. Gen. Rezaq Hayder, in the one-hour meeting.

De los Santos said the UNTAET peacekeeping force would consist of 9,000 personnel from 27 countries, not including 200 military observers.

East Timor would be divided into eastern, central and western sectors. UNTAET, whose members are from South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines, took over the eastern sector from Interfet early this month.

De los Santos said he did not foresee any obstacles in the peacekeeping process in East Timor.

"Although before I came to Denpasar there were some isolated cases at the border, but after my meeting with General Syahnakri this afternoon, I was assured that we can have good cooperation and good communication, so that the problems at the border will be reduced, minimized, if not eradicated."

He said most of the incidents were border crossings by former members of pro-Jakarta militias. He added that the border crossings occurred some weeks ago and the Indonesian security forces took action to deal with them.

He added that he met with several high-ranking Indonesian officials on Monday, including Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono, Indonesian Military Commander Adm. Widodo and Army chief of staff Gen. Tyasno Sudarto.

"They told me they will support the programs of the UN and UNTAET. I think this is a very good sign for the normalization of the situation in East Timor."

On a separate occasion, Kiki said economic factors were behind the border crossings in East Timor.

"We all know East Timor is lacking foodstuffs. A kilogram of sugar costs Rp 55,000, if that.

"It is very possible that prointegration militias were involved in the border crossings. But we have taken stern action against them," he said, referring the arrest of Moko Soarez, a former militia member, who was found selling guns last week.

The buyers of the guns were also arrested, he said. "The guns dated back to the Portuguese colonial era."

Soarez is being held in Kefamenanu Police detention in West Nusa Tenggara, awaiting trial.

East Timor broke away after 25 years with Indonesia following a UN-sponsored self-determination ballot last year which resulted in an overwhelming rejection to Jakarta's wide-ranging autonomy offer. Violence followed the ballot, prompting the UN to send peacekeeping force to the territory. (zen/sur)