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East Timor considers options for future security force
22 August -- Top officials from the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) today met with East Timorese army commanders to discuss proposals for a security force for the newly independent territory.

UNTAET Chief of Staff, Parameswaran, and Brigadier Louis Gardner, Chief of Military Observers, went to Aileu today for an informal meeting with more than 20 commanders from the armed wing of the East Timorese Resistance Movement -- Falintil -- to consider three options proposed in an independent study by the King's College of London.

The study proposes the creation of a force of 3,000-5,000 members based on a core of former Falintil soldiers and conscripts. A second option would be a professional regular core of 1,500 members, supported by a conscripted draft of 1,500 serving for one year. The third proposal put forward the concept of a part-time Volunteer Reserve with a force of 3,000, of which about one half would comprise former Falintil soldiers. The remaining 1,500 would be volunteer reservists based at home and trained regularly.

More meetings are planned between Falintil and UNTAET to further discuss the document and its implications.

In other news, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today reported that a group of pro-Indonesian East Timorese in the border town of Atambua in West Timor have harassed one of its staff members. "He was pushed around and taunted, but was luckily unhurt," UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told the press at the agency's Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Another "worrying development" for the agency is the setting up of roadblocks by former East Timorese militia members on the roadway from Motaain in West Timor to Batugade in East Timor, along with the reported harassment and extortion of travellers. UNHCR has urged Indonesia in Atambua to dismantle the roadblocks, the spokesman said.

The Motaain-Batugade road is used by the UN refugee agency to transport East Timorese returnees, of whom about 100 have registered recently in Atambua to return home. "We are concerned that with the militias roaming around with impunity, we may not be able to help them repatriate," Mr. Janowski said.