U.S. upset about UN-policed E. Timor peace

U.S. upset about UN-policed E. Timor peace

SINGAPORE (Reuters): The United States and other nations are
worried that violence in Indonesia's West Timor could shatter a
U.N.-imposed peace in independent East Timor, U.S. Defence
Secretary William Cohen said on Saturday.

He said there was also concern over whether Indonesian
President Abdurrahman Wahid can and will take control of his
country's military and the militias in Indonesian West Timor who
are backed by factions in the armed forces.

"I think the concern on the part of the United States and many
other countries right now is whether or not the West Timor
situation will deteriorate further and whether the militias will
undermine what has been successful as the peacekeeping mission on
the part of the U.N. in East Timor," Cohen told reporters
traveling with him in Asia.

There is worry over "whether or not Wahid does, in fact, have
control over the military and will hold those accountable who
have committed abuses in East Timor," he added in an interview
ahead of a visit to Jakarta for talks on Monday.

Militias in West Timor recently killed three U.N. aid workers
near the border with East Timor, which was virtually destroyed
after an independence vote there last year. The military stood by
while that happened and U.N. troops have kept peace there ever
since.

"I am really not in a position to make a judgment on that,"
Cohen said when asked whether he felt Wahid could put the
powerful military under complete civilian control and make it
accountable for atrocities in East Timor.

"I think he has to. And I think it's clear that the
international community is looking very carefully and closely at
what is taking place in Indonesia," the secretary said.

"Everyone in this region recognizes that the military will
continue to play an important role in maintaining stability in
Indonesia, but that also there needs to be accountability," he
added.

"And, hopefully, that accountability assessment can take place
on the part of the Indonesian government rather than having it
imposed or externally created."

He referred to threats from some western officials that the
U.N. might set up a war crimes tribunal to look into the East
Timor devastation if Jakarta does not make the military
accountable.

"I think that he (Wahid) has an opportunity to demonstrate
that he is in charge and is in control and can help really reduce
and eliminate the militias in West Timor from causing the kind of
havoc that they have been causing recently," Cohen said.

The secretary said it was also very important for the West to
support a united Indonesia and not to take sides with other
factions and areas seeking independence from that heavily
populated and mostly Muslim country.

Cohen spoke to reporters traveling with him on the second leg
of a six-nation Asia-Pacific trip which will take him to Jakarta
with Wahid, the Indonesian Defence Minister Mahfud M.D. and armed
forces chief Admiral Widodo Adi Sutjipto.