Indonesia Edges Toward Timor Peacekeepers

By Vorasit Satienlerk

DILI, East Timor (Reuters) - Indonesia appeared to be bending toward allowing foreign peacekeepers into East Timor as U.N. delegates toured the territory's ruined and charred capital to see the damage for themselves.

Armed forces commander General Wiranto told the five-man Security Council team Saturday he would urge the government to consider an ``accelerated peacekeeping mission.''

Jakarta is under considerable international pressure to halt massacres carried out by anti-independence militia angered by the territory's overwhelming vote on August 30 in favor of ending Indonesian rule.

East Timorese and independent experts estimate that thousands have died in the last few days.

Harrowing reports of killing by drug-crazed militia and a mass tomb of slaughtered Timorese emerged Saturday from U.N. and aid workers who fled East Timor for Darwin in Australia.

Isa Bradridge, an aid worker, told Australian media his wife Ina had seen thousands of bodies stacked on top of each other in the main police station of the territory's capital, Dili.

``It was chockablock full of dead bodies right up to the roof, a whole building, thousands (of bodies),'' he told Channel Seven television. ``All she could see through the bars were arms hanging out, heads, old and new, blood dribbling out under the door.''

After first refusing to accept international peacekeepers in East Timor, Saturday Indonesia appeared to be moving toward the view that they could be allowed in soon.

A U.N. official quoted Wiranto as telling the delegates visiting Dili: ``The offer of an accelerated deployment must be considered as an option by the Indonesian government and I will bring my report to my president tomorrow.''

Dressed in blue flak jackets, the team toured Dili with Wiranto amid heavy security and visited the beleaguered U.N. compound, refuge to some 1,000 terrified East Timorese, which has faced constant threat of attack by military-backed militias.

Dili has been plundered and destroyed, with ruins of buildings blackened by fire. Whole streets have gone. The commercial area has been razed.

In other areas, shops and houses have been attacked in an apparently selective manner. Many untouched buildings flew the red and white Indonesian flag.

The guns were quiet Saturday.

``We are all in favor of staying in Indonesia,'' said Hermanus Mahury, a refugee at a camp near police headquarters. ''There are no pro-independence people here, thank God.''

Sentiment was different in the embattled U.N. compound where about 80 international staff remain.

``If UNAMET (U.N. mission) does not stay, the militias will kill us all, so we hope UNAMET will not leave us,'' said Joao Jeronimo, 31, a translator. ``They must stay until there is a political solution.''

``Many people are separated from families,'' said Mariana Dos Reis, 25. ``My husband went to the hills. Many men in our neighborhood fled. The military came and burned our house. My heart is broken.''

A U.N. military liaison officer, who declined to be named, said: ``A few days ago, the sky was pitch black with smoke, fires were everywhere, visibility was down to less than 50 meters.''

Another U.N. official said: ``There is no civil war here. The militia are armed and they are shooting innocent people.''

British U.N. delegate Sir Jeremy Greenstock said the team was in Dili for first-hand reports of the violence.

``Our visit is also an expression of solidarity with the many displaced persons in the U.N. compound and the courageous UNAMET staff who have been doing everything they can to help them.''

The team was due back in Jakarta at about 1330 GMT.

Security forces had arrested 25 militiamen and there were about 1,000 still at large in the city, Major General Kiki Syahnakai told ambassadors.

Pat Burgess, a U.N. official, said there were 100,000 to 200,000 people sheltering in the mountains outside Dili.

He said they were living off ``crisis food,'' used in drought times when crops fail, such as ubi kayu, a root plant.

``Unless there is urgent and widespread humanitarian aid there will be a disaster,'' he said. ``This cannot happen unless the security situation is under control.''

A U.N. colleague said the shooting had stopped in Dili, coinciding with the delegation's visit.

``Once the delegation leaves, the shooting will start all over again,'' he said. ``They're probably loading their guns right now.''

Security Council president Peter van Walsum said the council would await the return of the team to New York before adopting any resolution or issuing a formal statement.

The mission has been trying to persuade Indonesia to allow an international force to go to East Timor to quell the violence in the former Portuguese colony that Indonesia invaded in 1975.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Britain, Canada, the Philippines and Portugal had given firm commitments to participate in a U.N.-mandated peacekeeping force if Indonesia consented.