http://news.com.au/frame_loader.htm?/news_content/state_content/4318961.htm Militia vows to fight Aussies By SIMON PRISTEL 14sep99 AUSTRALIAN-led peacekeepers will have to fight their way into East Timor, the province's governor warned yesterday. Abilio Osorio Soares said the militias responsible for the bloodshed had nothing to lose. "It is impossible to have reconciliation. Everything is too late," he said. "The solution is only fighting," the Jakarta-appointed Mr Soares said as he travelled from West Timor to Bali to join Indonesian military leaders. Mr Soares said the militias plan to "control" three districts in the mountainous west of East Timor, where they believe they will have the fighting advantage. He said their attitude would be: "So what if thousands of people die. It's all right ... we have future generations." The ominous warning came as aid groups feared militias would use the days before peacekeepers arrived to continue the slaughter of East Timorese. A terror campaign by pro- Indonesian militia that started in East Timor has moved across the border to West Timor, where more than 100,000 refugees have fled, sources said. People who have visited the border town of Atambua described it as a lawless place of gunfire, murder and kidnapping. There are fears that army- backed militiamen in Atambua and Kupang are hunting down pro-independence refugees. Meanwhile, Canberra said no Australian troops would be sent to East Timor until peacekeepers from other countries were in Darwin and ready to join the mission which could be a week away. Although Australian troops could be deployed within hours, a government spokesman said: "We won't be going on our own. "Once we get some others to join us and the United Nations thinks it's a good idea, then we will be going ahead." After a week of hectic Australian diplomatic efforts to force Indonesia to accept peacekeepers, the mission to East Timor now hinges on the United Nations Security Council in New York, which will decide the rules and shape of the force over the next two days. Defence Minister John Moore said Australia would wait for clear instructions from the UN Security Council, which may not decide the rules for the peacekeeping force until tomorrow. "It's hard to know the precise time but I'd say it sounds more like a week than anything else," Mr Moore told ABC Radio. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who left Australia yesterday for the UN meeting in New York, said the peacekeeping force must be multinational from the outset. "This is a multinational force and this multinational force must be that," he said. "It's not an Australian force, it's a multinational force led by Australia and so its multinational character is an important component of the diplomacy." But Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said Australia should take immediate action and make arrangements for peacekeepers to be on the ground as soon as possible. "Tens of thousands of people are now dying in Timor, dying of starvation as well as violence," Mr Beazley said. "For God's sake, we should just do it now. "Now that the ball is rolling we must make absolutely certain that we get in there as fast as possible and no later than the next day." Darwin is poised to receive up to 1300 East Timorese refugees who will be snatched from smouldering Dili by a wave of RAAF Hercules in an operation that was shrouded in secrecy yesterday. All UN spokesman David Wimhurst would say was: "There are plans under way to move East Timorese out. I don't want to go into these plans publicly." However, late yesterday, portable floodlights were being set up outside a large air-conditioned covered stadium at the Marrara sports complex near Darwin Airport. Australia will send an initial contingent of about 2000 troops into the troubled province to try to restore order. The number of Australian troops will grow to about 4500 by phase three of the peacekeeping mission, when Indonesia withdraws its 26,000 troops and police in East Timor. Several nations have also promised to join a peacekeeping force, including leading members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia. New Zealand, Britain and Canada have also offered troops, while the US has offered transport, logistics, planning and intelligence support. Urgent international efforts were under way last night to arrange emergency air-drops of food to thousands of starving refugees hiding from militias in the mountains of East Timor. ******************************************************* [This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."] -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
