When peacekeeping isn't a piece of cake

By JOHN MARTINKUS Herald correspondent

Almost three weeks after a series of militia incursions into East Timor from neighbouring Indonesia left five people dead, the two largest contingents of the peacekeeping force (PKF) responsible for security in the newly independent nation, the Australians and the Portuguese, are still facing criticism over their failure to heed warnings of the attacks.

Signs of differences between the Timorese authorities and the UN mission are also lingering over the rioting in Dili last month. Questions are being asked about the commitment of the international teams to stability in East Timor.

The attacks were the worst since East Timor achieved independence in May last year. They began on the night of January 4 with volleys of gunfire in three villages in the Atsabe area near the Indonesian border, and a raid on the house of a local leader that killed his nephew and two others.

Three men were kidnapped in the same area. The only one to survive by escaping identified his captors as local former militiamen from across the border. The other two were found dead, surrounded by shell casings from Indonesian military rifles.

The morning after the incident, President Xanana Gusmao and the heads of the East Timor defence force and police met UN officials in Dili and asked to be allowed to undertake an operation to secure the area.

"Our argument was that we trust the PKF. But the marginal groups have changed the way they act. If PKF operate alone, maybe they don't have a chance because they don't know the people," President Xanana said.

He described how in his days as a guerrilla commander fighting the Indonesians, he would often wave at Indonesian troops manning checkpoints. The Indonesians didn't have the local knowledge.

"We put the same question to the PKF. These men they will just salute you and say 'Hello, mister'. You won't catch them."

The East Timorese defence force, the FDTL, was given command of the area where the militia attacks took place and 130 people were arrested in two weeks. But only eight suspected militia are still being detained and the operation is winding down.

Local police investigating the deaths in Atsabe believe the killers fled back across the border, through the sector controlled by Australian troops.

Despite warnings of militia incursions planned for December and January, Australian troops abandoned their border post at Nunura in December. Paulo Maia, a former pro-independence guerrilla who worked for previous Australian troops gathering intelligence, says the removal of the post left a gap in the border that allowed militia to trek deeper into East Timorese territory.

On January 8 three militia were seen filling their Indonesian military issue canteens in the Nunura river. More than 100 local East Timorese gave chase and threw rocks at them.

The Australian troops 5km away in their new base in Mouliana were unaware the incident had occurred.

The infiltration of four groups of armed militia back into East Timor through Nunura began in December. The groups were believed to be armed and controlled by former pro-Jakarta militia head Joao Tavares, who is still living in Atambua.

The plan was to infiltrate four groups into the towns of Hatolia, Atsabe, Liquica and Maubara, in western East Timor, to assassinate local leaders who had fought for independence.

Only the group that reached Atsabe seemed to be successful, but the information was well known locally beforehand, but ignored by the PKF.

Similar warnings were passed through President Gusmao about the withdrawal of Portuguese troops from their base in Ermera, leaving the area undefended save for a few police with handguns.

The PKF command in Dili has refused to comment.

Reporters are faced with a Catch-22 situation: dealing with a UN administration that refuses to talk to them unless they have UN ID, while no longer issuing journalists UN IDs.

The silence of the UN on the rioting on December 4 has contributed to the sense of instability and uncertainty over the commitment of the UN mission.

On the day of rioting in the capital following the deaths of protesters at the hands of East Timor's own police, each UN contingent was engaged in protecting its own country's assets. Meanwhile, the UN administration in Dili remains silent and seems intent on only keeping the withdrawal timetable intact.

As one senior officer in the FDTL put it, it would be a shame for the UN to leave dishonourably after serving so well there.

For Gusmao the most difficult times dealing with those across the border are still ahead. He supported the reconciliation process with former militia leaders such as Tavares.

"We are now entering a difficult phase of reconciliation. Before it was only repatriation. Now we are starting to deal with the criminals."

A refusal to offer amnesty and the lenient sentences handed out at the Indonesian ad-hoc human rights tribunal in Jakarta give little incentive for militia leaders like Tavares to return.

Both East Timorese convicted in the Jakarta trials, former governor Abilio Soares and former militia leader Eurico Guterres remain free, pending appeal, despite recently being sentenced to five and 10 years' jail respectively for human rights abuses in 1999.

The UN force and President Gusmao refuse to speculate on the involvement of the Indonesian military in the latest incursions. "What we need is evidence," says Gusmao.

But FDTL Commander Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak has been reported as blaming the Indonesian military for the incursions, and one of the militia in custody has told the media that he was briefed by junior Indonesian military officers.

Herald feature: Indonesia and East Timor