U.N. Security Council Approves East Timor Force

The Security Council early this morning authorized an Australian-led interim peacekeeping force to stop the violence that has ravaged East Timor since its people voted for independence from Indonesia on Aug. 30.

A multinational force of 5,000 to 7,000 troops, including soldiers from neighboring Asian nations specially requested by Indonesia, could be on the ground as early as this weekend.

“It’s not often that the council begins and ends its business within a 24-hour period,” said British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, who helped draft the resolution. “I think it shows we meant business.”

The resolution, adopted unanimously after day-and-night intensive negotiations, creates a force to “restore peace and security,” protect and support humanitarian missions and ensure the safe return of refugees.

It also condemns the violence against civilians and aid workers and demands that those responsible be brought to justice, though a clause specifically blaming “armed militia and Indonesian security forces” was deleted during negotiations.

The multinational force will eventually give way to a U.N.-led peacekeeping operation. Some of the same troops may actually remain, but the U.N. will assume leadership and expenses of the later peacekeeping operation.

Despite Jakarta’s desire to exclude Australia from the group--many Indonesians believe Australia is biased in favor of pro-independence forces in the territory--the peacekeepers will be led by an Australian commander, Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove. Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Abdullah Alatas conceded that nearby Australia was “best prepared” to mobilize the operation the fastest.

But in a nod to Jakarta’s wishes, the peacekeeping group will coordinate with the Indonesian military, and a large contingent of soldiers will come from neighboring Asian nations.

Participating countries may include Malaysia, South Korea, the Philippines and Bangladesh, as well as New Zealand, Canada, Argentina, Fiji, France and Italy. Britain will offer Nepalese Gurkha soldiers in deference to Indonesia’s request for “Asian faces” in the force.

The Clinton administration has indicated that it is willing to provide logistical support but not ground troops.

Several important issues are still being hammered out: the timing of the deployment, the composition of the force, and most important, how to ensure cooperation between the Indonesian military still in East Timor and the outside forces they consider intruders.

“This is very difficult and complex for us,” Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday. “But it’s very important that security and stability can be restored and they move toward independence as fast as possible.”

Indonesian troops were placed on high alert Tuesday in Jakarta in anticipation of a nationalistic backlash to the government’s decision to accept foreign troops to do the job the Indonesian military could not: bring order to East Timor.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and independence advocate Jose Ramos-Horta warned that the arrival of peacekeeping troops would not necessarily mean the end of violence in the ravaged territory. He predicted clashes if Indonesian troops remain.

“It’s an explosive situation. Once we have an international force on the ground and Indonesian troops are still there, it’s going to be impossible to control the emotions of our people,” he said Tuesday at the United Nations, warning that civilians may vent their anger at a military that has dominated East Timor since Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975. “The security must be entirely, exclusively in the hands of the multinational force.”

Indonesian Foreign Minister Alatas said the Indonesian troops would be withdrawn, but not for several months.

Australia, whose Southeast Asia defense policy is built around a 1995 security pact with Indonesia, has been among the most vocal critics of the Indonesian government’s unwillingness or inability to halt the violence in East Timor. Demonstrators in Jakarta have held almost daily protests outside the Australian Embassy.

Ironically, Australia is the only Western country to have recognized Indonesia’s claim to sovereignty over East Timor.

Few reports were reaching Jakarta from East Timor on Tuesday after the withdrawal of most U.N. personnel and the closure of the world body’s compound in Dili, the territorial capital. Virtually all relief workers, foreign journalists and international observers have left the territory.

The U.N. evacuation of 110 local and international staffers and 1,300 East Timorese civilians who had sought safety in the U.N. compound ended, for the time being, an ill-fated mission. The U.N. effort to organize and oversee a peaceful election was derailed by the anti-independence militias who have been running amok in East Timor, often with the active encouragement and involvement of Indonesian soldiers and police officers.

The evacuees were flown Tuesday to Darwin, Australia, about 500 miles southeast of Dili, in a fleet of Australian C-130 transports. They will live in a tent city until the peacekeeping force can provide the security for their safe return.

Only a dozen U.N. personnel remained in Dili on Tuesday night, led by a Bangladeshi brigadier general. They had abandoned the compound and were quartered in the Australian Consulate near the airport.

After the evacuation, the U.N. compound was looted by the Indonesian military, U.N. officials in New York said. Soldiers drove off with computers and office equipment and they smashed U.N. cars, the officials said.

“These were the very people we asked to secure the compound when the U.N. staff moved,” said Fred Eckhard, a U.N. spokesman.

U.N. staff also reported to the Security Council that Indonesian soldiers were hunting down pro-independence leaders among the refugees in Dili and the mountain village of Dare.

Ian Martin, chief of the U.N.’s mission in Dili, said upon reaching Darwin that a humanitarian disaster was taking shape in East Timor’s mountains, where tens of thousands of unarmed civilians fled to escape the marauding militias.

“There is a very large group of people with no access to food,” he said. “It is hard to overstate the urgency of bringing food to them.”

Australia hopes to begin an airlift of supplies Thursday. Indonesia says it will provide emergency aid to refugees who crossed the border into the neighboring province of West Timor but has no plans to help refugees in East Timor.

Farley reported from the United Nations and Lamb from Jakarta.