Timor militias threaten Indonesia police, hang on to weapons

September 26, 2000
Web posted at: 10:37 AM HKT (0237 GMT)

JAKARTA, Indonesia Sept 26 (Reuters) -- Pro-Jakarta militias in Indonesian West Timor threatened to occupy a regional police post and some members refuse to hand over weapons because one of their leaders claims he was insulted, media reports said on Tuesday.

The reports underscore the depth of the problem Indonesia faces in disarming the violent East Timorese gangs, which have sparked international outrage when they slaughtered three foreign U.N. aid workers in West Timor three weeks ago.

Indonesia has given the militias until Wednesday to give up their guns or police and soldiers would take them by force.

The authorities initial attempts to disarm the gangs were branded on Monday as "pathetic" by the U.N. mission chief in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres on Monday threatened to mobilise his forces and take over the regional police headquarters in West Timor if officials failed to explain why he was unable to meet visiting Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri the previous day, the Antara news agency reported.

U.N. observers had to flee to neighbouring East Timor under Indonesian military escort after Guterres supporters rioted at a weapons handover in the West Timor town of Atambua on Sunday when Megawati left without meeting the militia chief.

Antara quoted Guterres, who holds a security position with Megawati's own political party, as saying he was prevented from meeting the vice president and had given the regional police chief one week to explain why.

The leading Kompas daily also said militia members on Monday refused to hand in weapons, partly because they were unhappy at not being able to talk with Megawati about their future.

"I am ready to die fighting against the military and police if they keep on stripping the refugees' firearms," Kompas quoted militiaman Gabriel Tahu, a former Indonesian soldier, as saying.

Vieira de Mello has said he suspected the militias would only surrender their homemade guns, but keep the military hardware.

Indonesia's plan is to persuade the militias to give up their weapons, followed by what it calls a "repressive" phase of enforcement from Thursday.

Some militia have handed over mostly homemade weapons.

The United Nations Security Council has demanded the militias be disarmed and disbanded and the United States has warned desperately-needed aid could be at risk if Indonesia's wayward military did not bring the gangs under control.

The Indonesian security forces established and armed the militias in an unsuccessful bid to persuade East Timorese to vote to stay part of Indonesia in the U.N.-brokered ballot last year.

When the result was a landslide in favour of ending more than 23 years of Indonesian military rule, the militias, backed by soldiers and police, razed the territory, killed hundreds and herded 300,000 people across the border into West Timor.

The militias, with support from rogue soldiers, have since established a rule of terror over much of West Timor, operating from camps still home to more than 120,000 refugees.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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