RIGHTS-EAST TIMOR: UN Likely to Authorise Force Within Days

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 11 1999 (IPS) - If Indonesia failed to end the bloodshed in East Timor, the United Nations was prepared to authorise the dispatch – possibly within the next few days – of about 6,000 troops to take charge of the territory, UN officials said Tuesday.

Indonesia, which had declared martial law in East Timor in a last effort to end violence there, had only about “two days” left to prove that it could ensure security for the more than 800,000 East Timorese who had opted for independence from Jakarta, officials said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters that if Jakarta could not restore calm immediately, the United Nations would have to consider other steps.

“The present chaos in East Timor cannot be allowed to fester any longer,” he said.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard confirmed that one possibility was the deployment of a coalition of willing nations who would form an armed peacekeeping force authorised by the UN Security Council to clamp down on the violence.

Sources said that Australia, which had placed its troops on alert in response to the wave of killings in nearby East Timor, was expected to lead the force. New Zealand, Britain, Canada and Malaysia also had expressed interest in contributing to the force.

A five-member team from the UN Security Council,led by Ambassador Martin Andjaba of Namibia, left for Jakarta Monday night to discuss with Indonesian officials the rising concern over Jakarta’s failure to halt the rampage by pro-Indonesian militia groups in East Timor.

They were expected to start discussions Wednesday.

Eckhard said that, if the situation in East Timor did not “dramatically improve” within the next two days, that team could also discuss alternative plans to restore peace.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that Indonesia now had two choices: “Either the Indonesian government takes care of the violence, or lets the international community be of assistance.”

UN sources said that, although governments in general want to give Jakarta one last chance to prove it can be trusted to keep the peace in East Timor, the idea of sending foreign peacekeepers had garnered widespread support.

The sources added that Indonesian President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie had been told of such plans, and even he was willing to accept an international force. Such acceptance remained crucial, because several nations in the Security Council – notably China – had argued previousdly that Indonesia must approve the deployment of any outside force.

Annan said Monday that he and Habibie agreed on “the need for further measures to be taken urgently to restore law and order in East Timor.”

Shortly after Annan’s statement Indonesia announced the imposition of martial law and a nightly curfew in East Timor.

Human rights groups, however, questioned whether these steps would halt the violence, in which pro-Indonesia militias have forced between 150,000 and 200,000 East Timorese from their homes in recent days.

The latest burst of violence escalated after the Aug. 30 self- determination vote in East Timor, in which 78.5 percent of Timorese voters rejected autonomy under continued Indonesian rule in favour of independence.

Sidney Jones, director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said the ensuing violence was a “one-sided, well-organised,

premeditated rampage, led by fully-armed militias and backed by local (Indonesian) troops.”

She argued that the militias were systematically attacking East Timor’s pro-independence movement, foreign journalists (most of whom have now left East Timor) and the UN Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), which organised the ballot.

“The (Indonesian) army says the violence is out of control but in fact, the army’s behind it!” Jones declared.

“The army organised and armed these militias in the first place,” she said. “Since senior officers at any time could have arrested soldiers and militia leaders involved in murderous attacks, but did not, why on earth should anyone believe that martial law and more troops will solve the problem?”

UNAMET officials reported instances of Indonesian forces involved in attacks alongside members of the pro-Indonesia militias. Eckhard noted, however, that 215 international UNAMET staff and 120 Timorese staffers were confined to the main UN compound in Dili, along with some 2,000 displaced Timorese, and are unable to verify reports of violence throughout East Timor.

Some UN officials doubted that Habibie’s government – which must deal with Indonesia’s recent elections, and the rise of opposition parties in the legislature – was in full control of the situation.

One official commented that Annan hoped the opposition, led by presidential contender Megawati Sukarnoputri, would back Habibie in any plans to deploy outside forces so that the crisis would not be used as a “political football” in Indonesian politics.

Indonesian approval is not the only hurdle facing UN peacekeepers. Any intervention force must be approved by the Security Council, where China – which holds veto power – has been notably reticent in allowing outside powers to deal with what it considers to be an internal matter.

(East Timor was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 and annexed one year later, although the United Nations and most member nations never recognised its occupation.)

At the same time, any force authorised by the United Nations must have the authority to use force under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, officials here said.

“There are machete-wielding, automatic-weapon-wielding militias on the streets,” one official said on condition of anonymity. “You would have to go in with your guns cocked and ready to fire.”

UN officials were aware for months that militias which favoured the continuation of Indonesian rule had planned a campaign of violence against independence supporters.

Yet they argued that a May agreement between Indonesia and Portugal, which paved the way for last week’s ballot, placed Indonesia in charge of security – even though, as UN envoy Jamsheed Marker said, Jakarta had failed that commitment.