| Subject: US ambassador
warns militia in W Timor to stop violence also:
NTT governor: Reports of militia terror against refugees 'baseless'
US ambassador warns militia in West Timor to stop violence
DILI, East Timor, Nov 2 (AFP) - US ambassador to Indonesia
Robert Gelbard on Tuesday warned the pro-Jakarta militia operating in West Timor that they
must stop using force or the United States would resort to any means possible to stop
them. "I met with some integration leaders last night. I was crystal clear that force
and violence is something that cannot be used," Gelbard told AFP in an interview at
Dili's Comoro airport.
"I told them that the international community starting
with the United States would use everything we could against them if they resorted to the
use of force."
Gelbard arrived in Dili after touring refugee camps in the
West Timor towns of Kupang and Atambua and said he was alarmed at the influence of the
pro-Jakarta East Timorese miltia there.
"It's very clear that we still see the influence of
the militias in some of the camps, certainly in the camps I went to," he said.
Gelbard said the purpose of his visit here was because
"the situation in East Timor is obviously something of enormous importance to the
United States government as well as to the rest of the international community."
During his visit Tuesday and Wednesday he will meet with
Ian Martin, the acting head of the UN Transitional Austhority in East Timor (UNTAET) and
Major General Peter Cosgrove, commander of Interfet.
On Wednesday morning a meeting is planned with National
Council for East Timorese Resistance (CNRT) leader Xanana Gusmao.
Indonesian Observer 2nd November 1999
NTT governor denies militia terror against refugees
JAKARTA (IO) The East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) governor
yesterday denied reports that East Timor’s pro-integration forces have launched
terror and intimidation against refugees living in makeshift camps in the neighbouring
province.
Reports that militias terrorized East Timorese refugees in
NTT or West Timor were baseless, Piet Tallo was quoted by Antara as saying in the
province’s capital of Kupang.
The government made the denial in a meeting with Australian
parliamentarian Kevin M. Rudd and Deputy Australian Ambassador in Jakarta Leslierowe.
Tallo said it was also not true that NTT, which shares a
border with East Timor, has turned into a training ground for pro-integration East
Timorese forces.
"The allegations are exaggerated," he added.
"Australia, which leads an international force in East
Timor, should be capable of asking the militia for a reconciliation [with pro-independence
supporters]. Australia should not forget the humanitarian aspects of the refugee
problems," he said.
Tallo expressed hope that the visit of Rudd and Leslierowe
would minimize the misunderstanding between Indonesia and Australia over East Timor, and
of the handling of East Timorese refugees in West Timor.
Rudd said his meeting with Governor Tallo has made him
aware of many issues which he had so far not known.
Rudd pledged to inform the Australian parliament of what he
has heard and seen during his visit to West Timor.
He also said he will pave the way for the setting up of
relations between the Northern Territory in Australia and West Timor by operating ferry
boats plying the Darwin-Kupang route.
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