Asia Times: UN chief trusts Jakarta to handle violence in East Timor



	May 28, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

UN chief trusts Jakarta to handle violence in East Timor
By Farhan Haq

UNITED NATIONS - UN officials agree with what humanrights groups have been saying for months: violence by militiagroups in East Timor against the pro-independencemovement is growing - but they differ on what should be the United Nationsresponse.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a report to the 15-nationSecurity Council, warned Tuesday that ''credible reports continueto be received of political violence, including intimidation andkillings, by armed militias against unarmed pro- independencecivilians."

In recent days there has been a spread of violence by militia groups that favora continuation of the 23-year Indonesian occupation of EastTimor, Annan said.

''There are indiciations that the militias, believed by manyobservers to be operating with the acquiescence of the[Indonesian] army, have not only in recent weeks begun to attackpro-independence groups, but are beginning to threaten moderatepro-integration supporters as well."

In such a climate, Annan wrote in a report, most pro-independence leaders have gone into hiding, just weeks before theUnited Nations is organizing an August 7 ballot in which Timoresecan either opt for autonomy under Indonesian rule or chooseeventual independence.

UN officials and rights activists have warned that theviolence could derail the August ballot but they are divided onhow such a prospect can be prevented.

Annan still trusts Indonesia to be in charge of security for thevote, while some critics warn that only the deployment of UNpeacekeepers can ensure a credible ballot.

Oxfam, the international aid group, warned Tuesday that theUnited Nations must ''immediately boost its presence in EastTimor'' to prevent what it contended was the ''sabotaging'' of theprocess by the pro-Indonesia militias.

''An election under the guns of the militias is not a freeelection,'' said Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam. ''Theconsultation process must be conducted in an atmosphere free offear and intimidation."

Offenheiser said that pro-independence groups have beenharassed and intimidated by the militias, with many key groups andindividuals in East Timor going underground and some 35,000displaced people reportedly living in camps dominated by themilitias.

''It's becoming increasingly clear that the Indonesian militaryare arming, training and directing militia forces,'' he said.''The militia appears intent on sabotaging the election bycreating a climate of fear and intimidation."

''East Timor has become a law-free zone, where Indonesian-backed militias murder and commit mayhem with impunity,'' agreedCharles Scheiner, UN representative of the InternationalFederation for East Timor, in a letter sent to Annan.

The United Nations, Scheiner wrote, has been failing in itsresponsibility to ensure the safety of Timorese in the run-up tothe August ballot. As a result, he argued, the world body needs tosend peacekeepers to East Timor immediately, to prevent the peaceprocess from becoming ''a cruel hoax."

Yet Annan, in his report to the Security Council, warned that''unrealistic expectations of the UN role exist among some EastTimorese which cannot be met in full."

Although the United Nations will speak out against intimidationby any party in the Timorese peace process, he added, it isIndonesia's responsibity to provide security and bring armedmilitias under control.

That division of responsibilities was spelled out in the peaceagreement signed May 5 by the Indonesian and Portuguesegovernments, which provided for the UN-organized vote but did notgrant any peacekeeping role to UN troops.

Instead, the world body is set to deploy a UN Mission in EastTimor (UNAMET), consisting of 241 international staff, 420volunteers, some 280 civilian police and 4,000 local staff.

The police are intended to monitor Indonesia's securityarrangements and help train Jakarta's forces for the ballot, butare not expected to carry any substantial weaponry or to useforce.

As General Wiranto, head of the Indonesian armed forces, saidrecently, the UNAMET police ''will only give suggestions to theIndonesian police."

For critics of Jakarta's occupation of East Timor, that is notenough. ''The Indonesian military and its civilian leadership areplaying the international community for fools, and the credibilityof the United Nations itself is at stake,'' Scheiner argued.

UN officials, however, are hemmed in by the need to secureapproval of the Indonesian government for any deployment of troops -something Jakarta is not prepared to do.

The one real card Annan can play, if the violence continues ,is to inform the Security Council that conditions for a fair votedo not exist - a recommendation which would likely cancel thecurrent voting arrangements and embarrass Indonesia.

In his Security Council report, Annan pointedly noted: ''I intend tocarry out that responsibility [to certify the security situation]with the utmost care."

(Inter Press Service)

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