Indonesia OKs UN peacekeepers for East Timor

13/09/99
AP
By SLOBODAN LEKIC

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Under increasing international pressure, President B.J. Habibie approved Sunday the dispatch of a U.N. peacekeeping force to ravaged East Timor. Indonesia previously had refused to accept an international force, insisting it could quell the violence sweeping the province of 800,000 people. 

"I have made the decision to give our approval to a peacekeeping force, together with the Indonesian military, to maintain the security of East Timor," Habibie said in a national television address after a series of meetings with senior Cabinet ministers and his military chief. 

Sandy Berger, the U.S. national security adviser, said the U.N. mission would be an "overwhelmingly Asian force." "This will involve U.S. troops," he said. They would mainly serve in supportive roles, such as airlifting other troops into East Timor, Berger said. He would not speculate on how many troops might be involved. Berger did not say how long it would take for the peacekeepers to be sent to East Timor, but said the mission could be "accomplished relatively quickly" if the Indonesian military cooperated.

Australian Defense Minister John Moore welcomed Indonesia’s decision, and said Australia "stands ready to assist the U.N. in whatever way we’re asked." Australia has offered to contribute up to 4,500 troops to the force, and the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Cambodia also have offered troops. Jose Alexandre Gusmao, an East Timorese rebel leaders, said after Habibie’s announcement:

"Now it is up to the United Nations Security Council and the international community to act speedily. There is no time to lose." For more than a week, impoverished East Timor has been engulfed in a wave of violence, intimidation and deportations by Indonesian troops and pro-Indonesian militias. Aid agencies estimate that between 600 and 7,000 people have been killed. 

The bloodshed started after the announcement that East Timorese had overwhelmingly voted to break away from Indonesia in an Aug. 30 referendum. Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 as it was gaining independence from Portugal. Berger credited "a rising chorus of voices, in New York (at the United Nations), here and around the world" for persuading Habibie to change his mind and request an international force. 

On Saturday, 50 U.N. ambassadors publicly condemned Indonesia for having allowed East Timor to slide into anarchy and for refusing outside help. Habibie said Indonesia’s troops had tried to quell the violence, but had been affected by psychological problems in dealing with a "very complex problem." He said he would immediately dispatch Foreign Minister Ali Alatas to the United Nations in New York "to work out the details" of a U.N. peacekeeping force to be made up of troops from "friendly nations." Alatas was due in New York on Monday. 

The force would work to uphold the result of the ballot as well as restore peace and security to East Timor, he said. "Too many people have lost their lives since the beginning of the conflict," he said. Habibie spoke at Jakarta’s presidential palace after telling U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of his decision. "It’s a nice, big step in the right direction," 

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. Annan had accused Indonesia’s military of letting the situation slide into bloody chaos. The United Nations quoted East Timorese refugees as saying the Indonesian military was slaughtering people at a refugee camp Sunday morning, but the armed forces vehemently denied the report of the killings in the town of Dare, six miles from the provincial capital of Dili. 

Mary Robinson, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, told reporters in Australia she wanted a war crimes tribunal established for East Timor and for those in the military involved in the violence to be named. Since the referendum, pro-Jakarta militias, with the active support of Indonesia’s military and police, have waged a campaign of terror against East Timor’s people and the U.N. staff that supervised the vote. 

Relief agencies have been denied access to an estimated 300,000 refugees who have fled the province or are hiding in the hills. They have no food or water in many cases and there are fears they will begin dying of starvation or disease.