| Subject: Wiranto Adopts
Conciliatory Approach, Bids To Soothe Border Row Reuters October 12, 1999 8.10 a.m. ET (1217 GMT)
Indonesia Bids To Soothe Timor Border Row
MOTAAIN, Indonesia — Indonesian armed forces
commander General Wiranto, trying to calm a growing row with Australian-led troops in East
Timor, called Tuesday for joint military operations on the border dividing the island.
Wiranto also said his troops would mount a special
operation to help East Timorese refugees across the border and clear their camps of
anti-independence militiamen who have vowed to attack the multinational force.
"My troops would like to invite INTERFET (the
international force in East Timor) for a joint patrol...on the border...to avoid
miscommunication etcetera that could cause casualties and later on international
problems,'' he told reporters in the border hamlet of Motaain, scene of Sunday's fatal
clash.
Both sides blame the other for the fight in which one
Indonesian policeman was killed and two others were injured. Wiranto accused the
Australian-led troops of being reckless.
"We will put together joint patrol procedures and
joint posts so that we can trust each other and will not blame each other,'' Wiranto said
during a one-day trip to the border area.
His conciliatory approach was in contrast to the navy which
cancelled a joint operation with its Australian counterpart to monitor the oil-rich Timor
gap.
The official news agency Antara quoted the navy chief
Admiral Achmad Sutjipto as saying the operation was called off because of deteriorating
bilateral relations over East Timor.
CLEAN-UP OF MILITIAS
Wiranto also promised to deal with the highly-charged issue
of pro-Jakarta militias who, with the backing of Indonesian troops, went on a murderous
rampage after most East Timorese on August 30 voted to break from Indonesia's 23-year
rule.
"The operation will clean up all refugees camps so
that they will not be used as the basis for guerrilla attacks in East Timor,'' he said.
He called the move proof that his army was not still
supporting the militias, most of whom fled to the West Timor side of the border when
U.N.-backed INTERFET troops arrived in East Timor just over three weeks ago.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees are also on the border
where they were forced to flee during the height of the militia-led violence in September.
BISHOP WANTS JUSTICE
In the East Timor capital Dili, the territory's spiritual
leader Bishop Carlos Belo said the pro-Jakarta militias must admit their role in the
campaign of murder and destruction if they wanted a place in the reconstructed society of
the future.
"Here it is essential that before talking about
reconciliation, justice should be done. Justice should be practiced first,'' he told
Reuters in the ruins of the home he had to flee last month when it came under militia
attack.
"Those who feel guilt, who killed their brothers and
sisters...who burned their houses, they must confess their fault to the East Timor
people...After that they will be received with open arms by the people,'' the 1996 Nobel
peace prize winner said.
Belo pressed the United Nations to quickly provide the
machinery for a civil society.
"We live in a kind of vacuum of power: no law, no
order, no police, no judicial system. It is necessary to have all those things to organize
civil society.''
Once a Portuguese colony, then forcibly annexed by
Indonesia after a moment of independence in 1975, East Timor faces the daunting prospect
of building a new society from scratch.
The early signs of recovery were heralded Tuesday to the
wail of bagpipes which multinational troops played to mark the reopening of the main
market in the pillaged capital Dili.
"It's another step forward in the reconstruction of
Dili and the re-establishment of a normal lifestyle,'' INTERFET spokesman Colonel Mark
Kelly said.
INDONESIAN SOLDIERS STONED
But also in Dili, the U.N.-backed force said it would
escort Indonesian soldiers after youths in the soon to be independent territory again
pelted them with rocks for the second day.
About 1,400 Indonesian army and police forces remain in
East Timor, most in Dili. INTERFET has around 6,000 troops there.
"INTERFET soldiers will in fact be involved with
providing convoy escort for TNI (Indonesian army) groups moving to the port area to avoid
any such incidents,'' Kelly said.
But one anti-independence East Timorese leader accused
INTERFET of seeking war with Indonesian forces.
"Now what we are witnessing on ground is that they're
trying to fight a real war, and that's why now they're trying to create a new war by
provoking the reaction of Indonesia,'' Basilio Araujo, a spokesman for pro-Jakarta groups
from East Timor, told Reuters Television.
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