Precedence: bulk Indon military could halt violence any time it wants: Gusmao also: Anti-Gusmao protest outside British mission Indonesian military could halt violence any time it wants: Gusmao JAKARTA, Sept 15 (AFP) - The Indonesian military could end the violence in East Timor whenever it wants, and the future of the tiny territory lies in its hands, pro-independence leader Xanana Gusmao said Wednesday. "If General Wiranto tells his troops to calm down, they will calm it down, (but) if he allows his troops to burn, kill and pursue people, they will continue to do so," Gusmao said. Wiranto (eds: one name) is the commander of the powerful armed forces which stand accused of orchestrating the violence in East Timor where pro-Jakarta militias went on the rampage after the people voted overwhelmingly on August 30 for independence. Speaking from the British embassy where he has been since his release from a house jail by the government on September 7, Gusmao welcomed the imminent deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in his homeland. The peacekeepers "will be very helpful to peace there," but the restoration of law and order would also depend on the Indonesian side, he told the RCTI private television ahead of a public discussion on East Timor. Diplomats, observers and witnesses have accused the Indonesian military and police of allowing -- if not creating, backing and arming -- militias to wage a campaign of terror which has left most of East Timor devastated and forced tens of thousands to flee. Gusmao said a UN peacekeeping force will "limit the activities of the TNI (army) and the militias" so that peace can be resored. The UN Security Council Wednesday adopted a resolution to authorising a multinational force to restore peace and security to East Timor. The resolution did not specify the composition of the force, but senior diplomats said Australia would be invited to lead it a contingent of between 5,000 and 7,000 soldiers to be deployed alongside Indonesian troops. But Gusmao warned that if the Indonesian military is involved, then new forces should be brought in to replace those who have been in East Timor so far. "It should be troops that can bring a new climate, and not those currently there," he said. The chairman of the Indonesian Association of Legal Aid and Human Rights, Hendardi, said during the discussion, broadcast live by RCTI, that the military would find it difficult to act against the militias. "Therefore, the role of the TNI should be minimal according to me, so that the possibility of reconciliation and peace can be left to the East Timorese themselves," said Hendardi, who was also Gusmao's lawyer. Indonesian military spokesman, Brigadier General Sudrajat, said the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) should not be blamed for failing to prevent the violence in East Timor, saying the Indonesian soldiers were facing a psychological barrier in their operations there. "In East Timor we are facing two sides in a conflict, where one of them was previously one of us while the other was our enemy." Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1975 and unilaterally annexed it the following year in a move never recognized by the United nations. An armed pro-independence movement has since led an active resistance against the Indonesian presence there, which the army has been deployed to quell. Sudrajat admitted that the militias and some individuals in the Indonesian military had run "amok." But he said the political situation had changed so quickly the army had had little time to make adjustments. "In a short time there was an order from General Wiranto to follow the new political constellation, that TNI should become neutral in East Timor. This is not easy because TNI is a large institution," Sudrajat said. Soldiers had been trying to change a culture and values which had been drummed into them for 23 years in just three months. But he said Wiranto's order for soldiers to become neutral, "at a certain level, it stopped" -- and did not get through. ---------- SiaR WEBSITE: http://apchr.murdoch.edu.au/minihub/siarlist/maillist.html
