---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- International Herald Tribune Saturday, August 28, 1999 -front page - East Timor in Turmoil as Vote Campaign Ends Compiled by Our Staff From Dispatches DILI, East Timor - Indonesia, facing international condemnation for the latest violence in East Timor, promised Friday to bring the territory under control as campaigning ended ahead of the vote on independence due Monday. But bloodshed Friday claimed at least three more lives in the former Portuguese colony. About 800 militiamen attacked the village of Memo on Friday. Witnesses said two people were stabbed to death by the militiamen and another was shot dead. KIPER, a local monitoring agency, said nine houses were set ablaze before the villagers took revenge and burned cars carrying the assailants. ''We are ready and waiting for them,'' said Anacleto Lopes, a villager. ''We have been told they are coming in to attack us, and we will fight them.'' A day earlier, at least five people died in clashes, prompting the rebel leader Xanana Gusmao, who is under house arrest, to call for an armed peacekeeping force to take over. Many more were wounded Thursday after militiamen opposed to independence for East Timor swept through Dili, firing at crowds of pro-independence supporters. ''We regret the incidents of yesterday,'' Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said. ''I am sure the police will be able to restore order quickly and take the necessary measures so there will be no postponement of the popular consultation.'' The chief of the UN mission chief, Ian Martin, said Friday that neither incident would dissuade the United Nations from going ahead with the election Monday. On Monday, East Timorese will go to UN-run polling booths to decide whether to remain a part of Indonesia as an autonomous region or to become fully independent. The result is due around Sept. 7. Witnesses said the police in Dili did nothing to stop the gun-toting militiamen Thursday, and even helped them. Mr. Martin said the world would be watching Indonesia during the vote and added that there would be ''serious consequences'' if the government did not dramatically improve security. ''The militia were carrying guns, weapons,'' he said. ''And once again, heavily armed and equipped police failed to intervene when that militia violence was carried on in front of them.'' Violence by pro-Jakarta militias has marked the days leading up to the ballot. The militias are backed by the Indonesian armed forces, which fear that independence for East Timor could spark anti-Jakarta rebellions elsewhere in the huge Indonesian archipelago. The escalating violence appeared to be aimed at frightening independence supporters away from the poll. But Mr. Martin said East Timorese would show the ''courage and determination to exercise their democratic rights.'' Until President B.J. Habibie offered East Timor independence this year, Indonesia had insisted that its annexation was irreversible, and it kept large numbers of combat troops there to crush any pro-independence sympathizers. Human rights groups and analysts said that up to a quarter of East Timor's population of 800,000 died in the fighting, disease and famine that followed the Indonesian invasion in 1975. Indonesia's often brutal rule of the territory has frequently soured its relations with the West. That is a serious problem now that it needs international aid to rescue it from an economic crisis. Also on Friday, several people were injured in isolated attacks by pro-Jakarta militias in Dili. Staff at the Roman Catholic Motael clinic in Dili said they had admitted three gunshot victims and two others who had been hacked and beaten in the incidents. Pro-Jakarta militias said five of their members had been killed and blamed pro-independence groups for the violence. But Mr. Martin said the failure of Indonesian police to curb militia activities was at the core of the violence. ''Ever since our arrival our major concern has been the operation of armed pro-integration militia groups,'' he said. ''That is where the bulk of the violence has been coming from, and it is the failure to prevent those armed groups from moving around with weapons that has been the fundamental policing failure.'' Witnesses of the fighting Thursday said that some Indonesian troops joined with the militias, and several said they saw a member of the security forces shoot an unarmed pro-independence supporter. General Wiranto, chief of the Indonesian armed forces, said the police would deal with those who were involved in the unrest, ''no matter which group they come from.'' Most observers expect the vote to go overwhelmingly in favor of independence. But pro-Jakarta militias have warned that there could be civil war no matter what the result. (Reuters, AP) Security Council Backs Mission The Security Council voted Friday to increase the UN police and military liaison presence in East Timor, Reuters reported from the United Nations, New York. In a unanimous resolution, the council decided to increase the police contingent of the mission there to 460 members from about 280 and the military liaison group to 300 from 50. It also extended the mission's mandate to Nov. 30. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 28 Aug 1999 jam 03:39:47 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
