POLITICS-EAST TIMOR: UN Prepares to Send Police

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 11 1999 (IPS) - The United Nations was poised Friday to send dozens of police advisers to East Timor within days in an effort to establish secure conditions there before an Aug. 8 referendum to determine the island state’s status.

UN officials told IPS that, after a two-week delay forced on the White House by its need to inform Congress of the Timor operation, the United States was now ready to accept the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET).

US acceptance likely would lead to a unanimous vote in favour of the Timor mission, possibly even late on Friday. As a result, a UN official said, civilian police could be sent to East Timor within the next few days, while the estimated force of 270 police was expected to be fully deployed by the end of June.

The arrival of the United Nations – which set up its office in the Timorese capital, Dili, last week – has been greeted by the Timorese population as a hopeful sign after 23 years of Indonesian military occupation.

“Things are better in East Timor now that the UN is there,” said Jose Luis Guterres, an official of the pro-independence National Council for Timorese Resistance.

Violence and intimidation by pro-Indonesian militias – who had openly weighed in against the Aug. 8 vote – has eased in Dili since the UN officials arrived over the past month, Guterres said here. But he warned, “That is only in Dili; the situation is worse in the countryside, because the UN is not yet there.”

Pro-independence groups have accused militias of killing at least 150 people, many of them vocal supporters of independence from Indonesia, in the past two months. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also has reported killings and intimidation of independence supporters by the militias, who are believed to have received weapons from the Indonesian military.

“The Indonesian military is afraid that in a free and fair vote, the East Timorese will reject continued Indonesian rule, paving the way for East Timor’s independence,” said John Miller, spokesman for the US-based East Timor Action Network.

“The tragedy is that a fair vote is impossible in this atmosphere of terror and intimidation,” Miller added.

The United Nations was gambling that, as UN civilian officials and police entered East Timor, the violence would ease to allow for an August vote in which the Timorese could opt for autonomy within Indonesia or independence.

Indonesia agreed to the ballot last month in UN-brokered talks with Portugal, East Timor’s former colonial power.

Some officials opined, however, that trust in the violence ending promptly was too risky. Recent reports from various sources – including from Australian officials – cited claims from militia leaders that they were supported by the Indonesian military.

“We will have to see whether (the military) wants to see a fair election or not,” one UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS.

Indonesian President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie has stated that he would accept East Timor’s independence if voters chose that option, and Annan responded that he would hold Jakarta to its commitment to oversee a free and fair vote.

But Habibie – likely to be a lame duck after his Golkar party performed poorly in this week’s elections – may not be the one who has to carry out the commitment to secure East Timor’s independence.

Megawati Sukarnoputri, the leading candidate for the Indonesian presidency and head of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), has said that East Timor must remain part of Indonesia, which annexed the former Portuguese colony in 1976. The PDI-P is leading the vote totals in the Indonesian elections, according to initial returns from the Monday ballot.

“The United States needs to make clear to any upcoming Indonesian leader that Indonesia has signed a binding international agreement to allow independence should East Timorese reject remaining part of Indonesia,” said Medea Benjamin, director of Global Exchange, a US-based rights group.

Washington’s level of interest, however, could be seen by its slow pace in approaching the East Timor issue at the United Nations.

The 15-nation UN Security Council held off on approval of the UNAMET force for two weeks, in order to give US President Bill Clinton’s administration time to inform Congress about the mission.

That two-week delay was required because of a directive signed by Clinton in 1993, which placed strict conditions – including the two-week period to consult Congress, as well as a limited mission and exit strategy – on US approval of all UN peacekeeping efforts.

UN officials had complained that the delay would hinder an already tight timetable for voting, but have been upbeat in recent days that there will be no further snags in sending police to East Timor.