Peacekeeping force takes over in Timor

Indonesian martial law commander Major General Kiki Syahnakri said he had passed control of security to Major General Peter Cosgrove, commander of the International Force in East Timor (Interfet) shortly after 9:15 am (0115 GMT).

“This morning the ceremony was held for the formal handover of security control from TNI (Indonesian armed forces) to Interfet,” Syahnakri told a news conference.

Syahnakri said he expected to leave the territory later Monday, as would an Indonesian naval ship loaded with departing troops.

But Cosgrove later denied Indonesia had handed over total security control. “Indonesia retains security control for theprovince,” he told mediapersons. “Indonesian troops have largely withdrawn but there remains, as there should remain, a security presence,” Cosgrove said.

East Timor was “still Indonesian sovereign territory” and it had been agreed by the United Nations and international community “that Indonesia maintains security responsibility for the province until at some stage, I guess, the MPR will make a decision and a new arrangement will be entered into.”

He was referring to the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) which is due to meet in November to ratify the four-to-one vote in favour of independence in the August 30 UN-sponsored ballot.

The Indonesian Army has left behind two battalions, or about 1,500 men, who will retain some security responsibilities until the vote is ratified.

Interfet said among the facilities still under Indonesian control were government departments, the airport and telecommunications. Asked how he felt about leaving, a departure marking the withdrawal of the occupyingforce that invaded East Timor, Syahnakri replied: “Of course as a soldier personally I’m a little bit disappointed.”

“But I have loyalty, obedience and discipline to those decisions made by the international community and the Indonesian government. I further expect that the resolution of the problems in East Timor will be running smoothly, peacefully and democratically.”

The withdrawal of Indonesia’s forces has been anything but peaceful. They have burned their barracks and other buildings behind them as they pulled out, and attempted to provoke Interfet troops by firing shots into the air as they sped out of Dili. Sections of the Indonesian armed forces backed the anti-independence militias who laid waste to East Timor and scattered its 800,000 people into the interior and into Indonesian West Timor.

The United States on Sunday insisted Indonesia end the collaboration between the army and militias. “I call on the government of Indonesia to stop the collusion between the Indonesian military and themilitias, and to disarm the militias,” US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said after meeting Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao on Sunday.

Gusmao is in Washington for meetings with the World Bank, UN officials and members of the US Congress. He appealed for help in rebuilding his homeland, which he has said he will return to “as soon as possible”. In the northern Australian city of Darwin aid workers said East Timor’s second city of Baucau would be used as a distribution base to transport desperately-needed food and medicine to the territory’s eastern regions.