Militia commander: we will kill our enemies

Militias and Indonesian Army Units are plotting refugee camp-based guerrilla warfare, as Herald correspondent Atika Shubert reports.

ATAMBUA - Commander Lucas Martin from the Blood of Integration militia is giving a tour of the sprawling Tenuboot refugee camp in West Timor, with an M-16 donated by the Indonesian military across his back.

In a few hours he will lead a foray over the border into East Timor, hoping to gather extra food and weapons in preparation for cross-border attacks against the Australian-led International Force for East Timor (Interfet).

In the event of encountering an Interfet patrol, Commander Lucas is blunt: "We kill our enemies. We are warriors too."

Despite warnings of retaliation from Australia and the United States, East Timor's pro-Indonesia militias are plotting to launch a guerrilla war under cover of West Timor's crowded refugee camps, hand-in-hand with sympathetic Indonesian military units.

Pausing to greet Indonesian soldiers laundering their uniforms with other camp residents, he says, "We have no official plans to engage them yet, but we are ready and we have support. We are on the border waiting for orders from our leaders and that is all. They want a war and that's what they'll get."

Nearly 200,000 East Timorese have fled for the marginal safety of West Timor after the wave of killing by vengeful militias.

But human rights groups say the camps in West Timor are less like havens of safety and more like militia training grounds, where the very people that helped destroy East Timor, now provide food and shelter in exchange for a teeming pool of recruits to their cause.

"They're not refugees; they're hostages," says one relief worker.

"The militia and military - you can't make a difference any more - are in complete control. And the Government can't do anything about it."

Tenuboot is one of about three dozen camps spread across the winding border between East Timor and West Timor. Like many of the larger camps it is home to the families of Indonesian soldiers on the retreat from East Timor.

A motley crew of militia and military guard Tenuboot's camp, prompting refugees to fly Indonesian flags in front of their plastic tarpaulin shelters.

Old men wear threadbare pro-integration T-shirts left over from the campaign season, while mothers pull red and white bandanas over their babies' heads for protection.

Militia members lounge in stolen vehicles from the UN Mission in East Timor, painting over the UN symbol with militia names like "Red and White Iron," "Thorn," and "Predator."

Residents spend sleepless nights listening to soldiers vent their anger by firing off bursts of automatic gunfire.

They hiss at foreigners and threaten to "slit the throats" of independence supporters. During a UN visit in September, militiamen stoned foreign observers and threatened to kill any other "white faces" that dared to enter the camps.

Commander Lucas arrives at the centre of Tenuboot camp where there is a growing cemetery carpeted in bougainvillea flowers. At least three babies have died in this camp since the exodus. Small wooden crosses mark their graves.

Most of the refugees were trucked in by military and police convoys, though the military denies forcing any of the refugees to leave.

One refugee who refused to give his name said: "The scariest is at night when the militia drink and sit at the gates watching everyone who comes in.

"No one dares step out after 5 pm for fear they will be shot, just for fun."

"Everyone here is pro-integration because all the pro-independence people have been kidnapped and taken away to who knows where, probably to be killed," whispers one young refugee in a neighbouring camp who refused to give her name.

Commander Lucas makes no secret that militia control these camps. To prove his point, he stops at an empty plot of dry land where a single table stands with a portable typewriter.

A man rushes over and begins typing out a fresh list of registered refugees to be given to the local Government, jabbing furiously at the typewriter keys with his index fingers.

"We keep good records here of every single refugee and his family," Commander Lucas says proudly.

"We know exactly how many people come and how many people go out."

Militia leaders such as Eurico Guitteres, commander of the feared Thorn militia that killed 12 people in an attack last April, come frequently to the camps, checking on conditions and recruiting new members.

At the end of the tour, Commander Lucas dons a red beret to complement his surplus Indonesian Army uniform and hikes his gun on his hip for photos.

One militia member nudges visitors to have their picture taken with the commander. "Then you will have proof. You can say 'I knew Commander Lucas, the pro-integration hero'.

"When the war begins, you will have something to remember us by."