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East Timor: U.N. Holds Secret Talks With Militia Leaders
JAKARTA (IslamOnline) – U.N. representatives have been holding secret negotiations with East Timorese pro-Indonesia militia leaders. The talks dealt with allowing militia followers to return to the half-island nation, a senior official said on Saturday.
In Jakarta, officials say they fear the talks were about brokering deals with the former militias over alleged Indonesian military participation in the violent rampages in Dili, East Timor in 1999, after the province voted to break away from Indonesia.
East Timor’s U.N. chief of staff, Malaysian Nagalingham Parameswaram, said he met secretly with Joanico Cesario Belo, Cancio Lopez de Carvalho and Nemecio Lopez de Carvalho, all leaders of pro-Jakarta militias.
The discussions took place on Tuesday in the East Timor border town of Batugade.
The militiamen told Parameswaram they were willing to order thousands of their followers to return to East Timor, which the militia gangs devastated after the former Indonesian territory voted for independence last year.
All the three militia leaders recently said they wanted the U.N. to protect them as they feared for their lives and thought the Indonesian military were after their scalps.
They said they have secret documents that reveal how former President B.J. Habibie of Indonesia assured the militias of the Indonesian army’s support to destroy Dili and East Timor if they voted for independence.
Officials in Jakarta dismissed these claims saying the pro-Jakarta militias were trying to bail themselves out from the U.N.’s impending trials on the carnage.
About 250,000 refugees fled across the border to camps in Indonesian-held West Timor to escape the violence. Up to 60,000 remains there in camps said to be terrorized by pro-Jakarta militias belonging to Eurico Gutteres, the jailed leader of the groups.
The U.N. says the refugees are being intimidated by paramilitary forces and are prevented from returning home.
“The purpose of the meeting was to establish what their intentions were because we know they control a number of people,” said Parameswaram.
“They indicated that they were ready to return and face the consequences including the judicial process, provided it was fair,” he said.
The U.N. administration preparing East Timor for independence has repeatedly said it will not offer an amnesty to returning militiamen, many of who are suspected of serious crimes in East Timor.
Meanwhile, international aid workers are planning a major refugee extraction from West Timor next week despite lingering security concerns. The U.N. in neighboring East Timor has cautioned against the planned movement by ship of 450 refugees from the West Timor capital of Kupang, saying it still needed to be approved by U.N. headquarters in Geneva.
“If it does go ahead, it’s a one-off operation to take out about 450 refugees, it would be some time before the middle of next week,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Peter Kessler said from the East Timor capital of Dili.
International aid workers pulled out of West Timor following an attack in the border town of Atambua on September 6th when three U.N. workers were butchered to death.
Kessler said the planned refugee movement next week would be swift, taking
less than 30 hours and involving as few aid workers as possible.
“We’re in discussion with the TNI [Indonesian military] about how they can guarantee the security of the operation,” Kessler said. “Most of [the] personnel will stay on the ship in the harbor,” he added.
He said security concerns remained high in camps along the border, particularly in Atambua where he said there was a “very, very strong militia presence.”
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