DATE=10/5/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=EAST TIMOR REBELS (L)CQ
NUMBER=2-254656
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
//Editors - Re-issuing to put corrent number on this
CR. Should be 2-254656 not 2-254666.//
INTRO: International peacekeepers in East Timor have
dropped a request for members of the territory's
guerrilla army to disarm. As Patricia Nunan reports,
the guerrilla soldiers will be allowed to keep their
weapons in their own camps.
TEXT: The spokesman for the international peacekeeping
force in East Timor says soldiers from the Falintil
guerrilla army will be allowed to keep their arms
inside their camps. But the guerrillas will not be
permitted to carry weapons in areas where the
peacekeepers have a presence.
The compromise comes a day after the leader of the
peacekeeping mission, Australian Major-General Peter
Cosgrove said the guerrillas had to hand in their
weapons. General Cosgrove said it was part of the
peacekeepers' mandate to disarm all East Timorese
people who are not members of the Indonesian Armed
Forces. Although that order has been put on hold, the
peacekeepers say they will continue to negotiate for
the eventual complete disarmament of Falintil.
The Falintil guerrilla army has been fighting for an
independent East Timor ever since Indonesian troops
invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975. Falintil
leaders offered to work with the peacekeepers to
secure East Timor, which was ravaged last month by two
weeks of violence by anti-independence militia groups.
The militias backed by the Indonesian military
launched a campaign of arson and killing after the
United Nations announced that most East Timorese
people voted against the territory remaining a part of
Indonesia, in a special referendum held August 30th.
The estimates of the number of dead range from
hundreds to thousands.
Falintil is believed to be sheltering, in its jungle
camps, tens of thousands of refugees who fled militia
violence.
The peacekeepers have yet to formally respond to
Falintil's offer of assistance. But it is unlikely
they would work with the guerrillas, as it would be
seen as compromising their neutrality.
Meanwhile, the United Nations and international relief
organizations say they have handed out food to more
than 12 thousand refugee families in the East Timorese
capital Dili. The 50 kilogram bags of rice are meant
to be enough to feed five people for a month.
Roughly 45 thousand of the estimated 300 thousand East
Timorese who were forced to leave their homes because
of the militia violence are taking shelter in the
capital.
Scores of refugees stood in line for food outside the
burned-out home of East Timorese spiritual leader
Bishop Carlos Belo. The Bishop won the 1996 Nobel
Peace Prize for his work to improve human rights in
East Timor.
Bishop Belo, who was forced to go to Australia to
escape the militia's campaign of terror, is expected
to return to East Timor Wednesday.
NEB/PN/FC/PLM
05-Oct-1999 08:08 AM EDT (05-Oct-1999 1208 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
