Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The Government is waging war against a new breed of freedom fighter for East Timor - the computer hacker.

A Portuguese hacker was the latest Internet guerilla to sneak behind enemy lines - breaking into a military Web site to plaster the word "propaganda" across the green and brown camouflage page.

Using the tag name Toxyn, he claimed to represent a group called Portuguese Hackers Against Indonesia. But the raid was short-lived. Military computer experts counter-attacked to chase Toxyn out of the system.

"This is not the first time," said Onno Purbo, head of the Computer Network Researchers Group at the Bandung Institute of Technology.

"Hackers have already attacked the Department of Foreign Affairs Web site, the Iptek government computer system, the Indonesian Institute of Studies and the Surabaya Institute of Technology," he said.

The latest computer clash came on the armed forces' site at [13]www.mil.id.

"They did not succeed in destroying the information on our home page," said Brigadier General Slamet Supriadi, head of the military's information unit.

Under its "daily news" section yesterday, the military offered a 20-page history and geography of East Timor which had been posted in January.