DATE=3/3/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=EAST TIMOR CLASHES (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-259797
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: United Nations peacekeepers in East Timor have
come under attack from armed militia groups four times
in the past two days. As Patricia Nunan reports from
Jakarta, the incidents are the first attacks on
international troops since the United Nations took
over control of peacekeeping operations last month.
TEXT: A United Nations military spokesman says the
four attacks were a "deliberate and coordinated
effort" by armed anti-independence militia groups.
Lieutenant Colonel Brynjar Nymo says the United
Nations is now concerned that the militia groups may
be able to cross the border from the Indonesian
province of West Timor, without any interference from
the Indonesian military.
In one incident, shortly before midnight Wednesday,
Australian troops near the border crossing of Batugade
heard 30 to 40 rounds fired, but could not see the
attackers because of dense vegetation. About thirty
minutes later, New Zealand troops were fired on near a
border post 50 kilometers to the south.
Within an hour, Australian troops near a border
checkpoint at Memo, halfway between the two other
posts, reported being fired on at least seven times
from West Timor.
In the last incident, a helicopter on a border
reconnaissance mission came under fire from West
Timor.
No one was injured in any of the attacks.
It was the first time U-N peacekeepers have come under
fire from militia groups. Lt. Colonel Nymo also says
the attacks may have been attempts -- as he put it --
to test the resolve and vigilance of the U-N troops.
The United Nations took over responsibility for
security in East Timor, after an Australian-led
peacekeeping force concluded its mission last month.
Peacekeepers were first sent to East Timor last
September, after armed anti-independence militias
seized control of the territory. The militias went on
a rampage of killing and destruction in response to
the announcement that most East Timorese had voted for
the territory to separate from Indonesia, in a United
Nations-sponsored ballot.
With the arrival of the peacekeepers, many militia-
members, along with a quarter-million East Timorese,
fled over the border into West Timor, which remains a
province of Indonesia. Since then, aid-workers say the
intimidation by the militia groups along the border
has prevented at least 100 thousand East Timorese
refugees from returning home.
The U-N spokesman, Lt. Colonel Nymo, says the attacks
may have been an attempt to stop a crossing of
refugees near Batugade planned for Saturday.
United Nations officials allege that some members of
the Indonesian Armed Forces supported and even
participated in militia violence last September. But
Lt. Colonel Nymo dismissed speculation that Indonesian
troops were involved in the recent attacks.
NEB/PN/FC/PLM
03-Mar-2000 04:44 AM EDT (03-Mar-2000 0944 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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