Radio Australia 9 May 2001

Australian troops in East Timor gear up for cross border incursions

Australia's troops in East Timor are expecting more cross border incursions from militias, as the dry season begins and the country prepares for pre-independence elections.

The U-N security council has reported that militias are as strong as ever and are preparing to step up politically motivated violence ahead of the August elections.

Major Dave Munro from the Australian National Command says political groups are already making preparations and the troops will have to be ready.

Just recently we had factions of falintil trying to band together in Dili and they had protest marches and so forth. Things along those lines, but they were all quite well behaved. anything's possible I guess - i mean none of us have crystal balls. we always have to prepare for the worst case scenarios.

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