NZ troops may stay longer in Timor

The Government is considering extending its commitment to peacekeeping in East Timor past May next year.

The Prime Minister, Helen Clark, said yesterday that the cabinet had considered East Timor "in passing."

Although there were unknowns involved about how long it would be necessary for the United Nations to stay there, "it is better to stay a little longer and go feeling confident about what you have left behind, than to go early and end up being called back in rather less desirable circumstances."

She said the Government was not opposed in principle to extending its commitment beyond May next year and "we do see ways of doing that, but we are just taking further steps at the moment to see, how likely is it to be, has anyone else put their hand up to the extent of the commitment New Zealand has made."

In a newsletter Act leader Richard Prebble said that the Army was bogged down in East Timor. "There is no exit strategy.

"The East Timorese economy has collapsed, law and order is breaking down and our Government has no idea how to extricate the troops from what is the biggest military operation since Malaysia."

While not responding to Mr Prebble's allegations, Helen Clark said the situation in East Timor was a mixed picture, with internal insecurity and episodes of violence potentially growing in the buildup to the general election there in August.

Mr Prebble also predicted that New Zealand's presence in East Timor would continue beyond the next election, as East Timor was Helen Clark's "only chip when negotiating with Australia."

There have been reports that New Zealand might have to raise a third infantry battalion or boost its force of part-time Territorial soldiers if its peacekeeping commitment in East Timor continues beyond the middle of next year.

It is understood this advice, contained in a defence capability review done late last year, has been passed on to the Government.

The peacekeeping mission has stretched the Army.

By next May its two 600-strong infantry battalions will each have done two tours of duty in East Timor. The troops now serving there are a patched-together battalion of other Army members and part-time Territorial soldiers.

Defence Minister Mark Burton has said that it would be "nigh impossible" for New Zealand to continue peacekeeping duties after May 2002 because of the strain on resources and the need for further training.

Violence erupted in East Timor after the 1999 independence referendum.

Pro-Indonesian anti-independence militias went on a rampage throughout East Timor, forcing up to a third of its 800,000 people to flee into the neighbouring Indonesian province of West Timor.

The militias have continued to carry out cross-border attacks and to harass and intimidate East Timorese still in camps in West Timor.

- NZPA

Herald Online feature: Timor mission

UN Transitional Administration in E Timor