Subject:AFP: Support group urges UN to send armed
peacekeepers
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 09:10:35 +0000
From: The AustralAsian <ausasia@ozemail.com.au>Support group urges UN to send
armed peacekeepers to East Timor
JAKARTA, June 30 (AFP) - An international support group Wednesday urged the United
Nations to deploy armed peacekeepers in East Timor instead of unarmed civilian police
after several were injured in an attack on a UN post.
"It is imperative that an agreed armed UN peacekeeping force, multinational in
nature, be deployed as soon as possible," the pro-independence East Timor
International Support Center (ETISC) said.
The peacekeepers could "verify the withdrawal of the Indonesian armed forces and
the disarmament of the army-sponsored paramilitaries," it said.
But in Jakarta Wednesday, Jamsheed Marker, the special envoy of UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan, ruled out replacing the unarmed civilian police in the troubled territory with
armed peacekeepers.
Asked about the possiblity of arming UN personnel in the territory, Marker said:
"At this point in time, I do not think that that is neccessary."
Calling the attackers "hoodlums," Marker said the UN would not allow the
incident Tuesday, the first reported violence against the UN mission there, "to knock
us off track".
"The main thing is to re-emphasize the responsibility of the Indonesian
authorities, the police in particular, to fulfil their committment and obligations,"
he said.
He added that Indonesian government officials, the police and the military have given
assurances that they will take steps to reinforce security in East Timor.
"They are not saying we cannot do it, or we will not do it, what they say is we
are going to reinforce what we are doing ... they are conscious of their
responsibility," Marker said.
He added, however, that he had yet to get an answer from the Indonesian police as to
why they arrived some two hours after the attack started.
The ETISC, based in Darwin, Australia, also said in a statement that the UN Mission in
East Timor (UNAMET) was focussing on a ballot on self determination and were "not in
a position to monitor ongoing human rights abuses".
"The lack of focus on human rights on UNAMET's part means that the Indonesian army
(TNI) and the Indonesian police are emboldened to commit atrocities in rural areas with
the help of paramilitary thugs," it said.
"There is an urgent need for a separate international human rights monitoring
mission to East Timor."
The UN agreed to send civilian police and volunteer polling officers to East Timor
after Indonesia and Portugal agreed to hold a vote there on the future of the former
Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesian in 1975.
The agreement stipulated that the Indonesian police would be responsible for security
before and during the ballot, which has been delayed from August 8 due to security
concerns.
The AustralAsian For News, Views and Comments on the Asia-Pacific Visit
http://www.theaustralasian.com editor: Sonny Inbaraj
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