| Subject: Militias
remain in W Timor but their power is fading
Militias remain in West Timor but their
power is fading
ATAMBUA, Indonesia, Dec. 19 (AFP) - One
week after the commander of pro-Indonesian militias ordered his forces to
disband, militias remain present here but their power is fading, aid
workers say.
"I think the militia are facing an
identity crisis about their future, whether or not the government of
Indonesia will continue to support them. So the cohesiveness of this group
has become weaker," Quang Bui, senior protection officer for the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told AFP here on Saturday.
Father Benjamin Joseph Bria, Catholic
vicar-general for Atambua, said he's noticed a change over the past week.
"The last two months were very
dangerous but now I think it's getting better and the militia are already
cooling down," said Bria.
As co-ordinator for the church's refugee
relief committee, he said he has seen for himself the improvement in the
security situation throughout Atambua and the region.
This bustling small city and the
surrounding area along the northern border with East Timor still host up
to 50,000 East Timorese refugees, the UNHCR said.
Until two or three weeks ago militias
were still seen occasionally carrying homemade guns in the camps, Bria
said. That doesn't happen anymore, he said, because the Indonesian
security forces have cracked down on weapons possession.
"The militia are quite disappointed
now," said Bria.
Journalists travelling in Atambua about
10 days ago saw two militiamen with homemade gun stuffed down their shirts
on the western edge of the city. On Saturday, the only guns visible were
toys in the hands of children playing on city streets.
Bui said that three weeks ago his staff
still needed protection from Indonesian security forces to enter the
Haliwen refugee camp, which has more than 4,000 residents.
"This camp is hard-core, controlled
by militia," said Bui, whose staff have been stoned by people in the
camp.
On Saturday, Bui felt safe enough to
drive alone with two journalists into Haliwen. There were no threats, just
loud words from a pro-Indonesian drunk who thought Bui had come to
forcibly take him to East Timor.
The camp is a collection of large plywood
and thatch huts spread across a sports field. Red and white Indonesian
flags fly in front of all the dirt-floor huts.
Men worked sawing and hammering together
dozens of wooden bed frames which they said they were paid Rp 10,000 each
by the police to assemble.
"In East Timor there's no
income," said one man wearing a black T-shirt bearing the name of the
Aitarak militia from Dili, East Timor.
"I am a member" of Aitarak the
man smiled, and proudly pointed to the red and white Indonesian logo on
the left breast of his T-shirt.
But there are supposed to be no more
militias, he is told.
"Here we are all refugees. We don't
know militias. We don't know army," the man said.
Bria said that at a smaller camp near the
bishop's compound "there are many militias inside." Refugees in
an adjoining camp agreed but when AFP and another journalist visited the
camp in a former school, a man claimed the militias had dispersed.
"There are no more militias here. In
East Timor there are," said Fabianus Jehaman. He said he was a school
teacher originally from Flores but had lived in East Timor for 10 years.
"Indonesia is better," said
another man who walked up to the group carrying a metre-long stick.
"Go home. Go home," he called
with a funny smile as the journalists left.
Physical threats are no longer the
primary way in which refugees are prevented from going home, Bui said.
Now, he said, the deterrent is misinformation spread about the situation
in East Timor.
Many of the remaining refugees are
militias and their families, who live alongside other refugees who fear
them and who still want to go back to East Timor, Bria said.
There is still fear, Bui said, but the
militias have lost some of their power to determine whether people go home
or not.
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