Subject: Indon military hands Timor security to
peacekeepers
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 08:41:50 -0400 Indonesian military hands Timor security to
peacekeepers
DILI, East Timor, Sept 27 (AFP) - The Indonesian military on Monday formally handed
over responsibility for security in East Timor to the Australian-led multinational force
here, witnesses said.
The handover ceremony at the Indonesian military headquarters here was conducted with
Indonesian martial law commander Major General Kiki Syahnakri passing responsibility to
Major General Peter Cosgrove, commander of the International Force in East Timor
(Interfet) shortly after 9:15 am (0115 GMT).
Under the terms of the transfer some aspects of security remained in the hands of the
departing Indonesian command, who have some 1,500 men left in the territory, Interfet
officers said.
Among the facilities still under Indonesian control are all Indonesian government
departments, the airport and telecommunications, they said.
The 1,500 troops will stay until the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in Jakarta
ratifies the results of the August 30 UN-conducted ballot in East Timor, in which its
people voted overwhelmingly for independence.
The Guardian [UK] Monday September 27, 1999
Troops sell food to their victims
Handover day
Nominally, the foreign force is now in charge
Maggie O'Kane in Dili
International peacekeeping forces numbering fewer than 4,000 take over formal control
of East Timor today from the Indonesian army, whose troops were in the last stages of
withdrawing from the territory last night.
But they did not leave with out delivering a parting insult to the people they are
their local militia allies subjected ti three weeks of terror.
All along the blue peeling railings of the harbour at Dili the soldiers were selling
back to starving refugees food they looted from them.
One man held a bag of rice for which he paid about £5; it should cost 40p. Even so,
hungry hands were stretched out between the railings begging for more. A soldier pulled
open a box of sugar. He wanted £8 for a kilo bag that should cost £1.
"Bastards!" screamed a man through the bars.
Around lay the debris of the 80,000 East Timorese shipped out of Dili harbour in the
past three weeks as the pro-Indonesian forces sought to clear the territory after it voted
for independence in a UN-supervised referendum on August 30: abandoned clothes, rotting
food, human waste.
But the army's turn to be sent off had come, and its men, humiliated by the arrival of
the international security force, were not happy.
By this morning, about 15,000 will have gone in the space of days. About 4,600 are
staying until next month's expected ratification of East Timorese independence by the
Indonesian parliament.
The departures seemed not to have made the Australians leading the peace force any less
jumpy: after intelligence that a militia attack on journalists staying in a seafront
convent was imminent, the peacekeepers switched off the convent's power, causing many of
its residents to scamper to a centralised location - the heavily guarded Tourismo hotel.
As hundreds of Indonesian soldiers marched up the gangplanks yesterday, the Australians
watched from a distance. Some of those departing were taking it better than others.
Captain David Xinenes, an army doctor, rose to his feet and shook hands - politely.
"I am looking forward to seeing my family," he said guardedly. But a footsoldier
squatting beside him muttered: "Fuck you."
East Timor having rejected Indonesian rule, the soldiers had to go. They lay around the
port on their backpacks, hostile and petulant.
On the wall of the harbourmaster's office someone had scrawled: "Look out,
independence will make you suffer."
But a few of the tens of thousands of refugees hiding up the mountain have already come
back to Dili. In the suburb of Becora the deserted streets were beginning to fill with
people.
The first thing Manuel Martin did when he got back was bury the bodies of Andre Araugo
and Jokuim Peres in a shallow grave. Purple hibiscus petals were strewn over the low
mound.
The two corpses had lain where they were shot for more than two
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