Asia Times: Risky business ahead



	September 17, 1999	atimes.com

Indonesia Crisis

Risky business ahead
By Sonny Inbaraj

DARWIN, Australia - An Australian-led United Nations multinational force to be sent to East Timor - likely within the next 48 hours - faces a rough road ahead and even possible death.

This warning was issued by a special advisor to Indonesian President BJ Habibie as Australia began cobbling together a contingent that has been tasked by the United Nations to restore law, order and security in the ravaged territory.

In Indonesia, a militia commander told reporters in the border town of Atambua that they ''will eat the hearts of those who will come to East Timor''. The Indonesian government is encouraging peacekeepers to recognize the immenent dangers. Dewi Fortuna Anwar, foreign affairs adviser to the Habibie cabinet, said threats by pro-Indonesia forces ''to kill one Australian peacekeeper a day'' must be taken seriously.

''I think one has to understand that now there is a very strong feeling of animosity towards Australia, rightly or wrongly, from among the pro-integration forces in East Timor. I'm very, very concerned that if the UN peacekeeping forces are made up of Australians they will be singled out - and that is my real fear,'' she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Commenting on Dewi's statement from Jakarta, Australian Prime Minister John Howard agreed that Australian troops could become a possible target. ''It will be a dangerous operation - and I've never pretended otherwise - and I think the Australian public must prepare themselves for all the consequences that might be involved in an operation like this.''

''It's not a war in the conventional sense - they're going into a part of the world that has gone through an enormous trauma; there has been a complete breakdown in law and order - that's why they're going in there. So there is a high degree of risk - and I've never tried to camouflage that fact,'' he added. ''Whenever you commit forces, even in a peacekeeping operation, there is an element of risk. That's why we try very hard to make certain that degree of risk is as low as possible.''

Though the mandate of the armed UN peacekeeping operation is to facilitate humanitarian aid, restore peace and order and protect operations of the UN Assistance Mission in East Timor, a former Australian army chief said this was inadequate.

Lieutenant General John Sanderson, who was also the former army head of UN operations in Cambodia, said UN peacekeepers should not only have special powers but should go with their own off-the-shelf laws with special powers of arrest. ''You see, in Cambodia when we established a UN law, we established a special prosecutor and went after the political terrorists. We were confronted with the possibility we might actually have to kill somebody in this process. And in theory, our peacekeeping mandate did not embrace that. Most failures in recent times of mandated UN operations, in my opinion, have been because of deficiencies in the mandate.''

But Mark Plunkett, a barrister and a peacekeeping specialist, was more forthright. He said the only time peacekeepers can use force under the usual rules of engagement is when they are being shot at themselves. He even questioned this rule of engagement. ''What do they do when they see someone machete another person in front of them or burn down a house? Do they arrest them? What powers of arrest do they have, under what law? Where will they put them if they arrest them? Before what courts will they be brought? Where are the courts in East Timor?''

Analysts agree the security challenge greeting the UN force will be the TNI response rather than any Timorese opposition to independence. ''Much depends on the success of the force in its first weeks. The UN security role will be complicated by the massive humanitarian problems which make restoring security harder. But if the UN force can succeed in this, the militia phenomenon could come to a quick end,'' said James Dunn, Australia's former consul in East Timor.

(Inter Press Service)

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