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DATE=9/3/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=EAST TIMOR / FRIDAY UPDATE (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253417
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=DILI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  The Indonesian government has decided to deploy at 
least 14 hundred troops to the disputed territory of East 
Timor in response to the deteriorating security situation.  
As Patricia Nunan reports from the East Timores capital, 
Dili, the arrival of the troops comes the night before the 
expected announcement of the United Nations-supervised 
autonomy referendum.  The vote was held on Monday to 
determine East Timor's political future.
TEXT:  /// SFX OF PLANES ///
An Indonesian transport plane carrying the first of at 
least 14 hundred Indonesia troops arrived just before 
sunset in Dili.  The head of the Indonesian armed forces, 
General Wiranto, sent the troops to deal with armed militia 
groups which the United Nations says has taken control of 
two towns outside the capital.
Two U-N staff members were killed on Thursday in the town 
of Maliana, sixty kilometers west of Dili, during a rampage 
by a militia group.  The United Nations evacuated more than 
thirty other staff members from the town on Friday.
The Indonesian military will be deployed to control the 
militias which are fighting to keep East Timor a part of 
Indonesia.  But just weeks before the autonomy referendum, 
the United Nations says, some military commanders were 
providing weapons and support to the militia men.
The troops are arriving on the eve of the announcement of 
the results of the United Nations-supervised autonomy 
referendum.  The ballot was held Monday to allow the East 
Timorese people to choose whether the territory with 
Indonesia under a wide-ranging autonomy plan or become an 
independent nation.
Ballot observers say the militia groups are trying to force 
the United Nations out of East Timor's rural areas. 
Russell Anderson is with the observer group, the 
International Federation for East Timor:
            /// ANDERSON ACT ///
      It is like a systematic plan, a pattern emerging, of 
      intimidation to try get foreigners and journalists 
      and everybody to leave, especially in the interior, 
      so that there are no observers there to witness, 
      possibly, what could be the bloodbath after results 
      of the ballot are announced.
            /// END ACT ///
The United Nations says almost 99 percent of registered 
voters turned out for the autonomy referendum on Monday. 
Observer groups say that if East Timor's independence 
movement wins the ballot, as it is expected to, further 
outbreaks of violence on the part of the militias are 
almost inevitable. (Signed)
NEB/PN/KL
03-Sep-1999 08:45 AM EDT (03-Sep-1999 1245 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.