Dili – Hundreds of pro-independence fighters in East Timor have descended from the hills to sign a truce with the pro-Indonesian militia holding the town of Suai, a witness said Thursday.
About 400 soldiers of the Falintil, the armed wing of the pro-independence Council for East Timorese Resistance, signed the peace agreement brokered by a local priest, she said.
The priest, Father Hilario, persuaded the group they would now be safe in Suai, 120 kilometres southwest of Dili, because of the presence of 16 United Nations officers in the town, the witness who declined to be identified, said.
The pro-independence soldiers arrived at Hilario's church compound, which already houses hundreds of displaced people, at dusk on Tuesday.
The following morning, as the military-backed Laksaur and the Mahidi (Die or Live for Indonesia) militia gathered, the Falintil balked, fearing it was a trap, she said.
But after hours of delay during which UN personnel said they would be in the town to monitor the situation, they agreed to join a "reconciliation" ceremony.
Both the militia and the Falintil symbolically surrendered a token parcel of weapons to the police, in the presence of the Indonesian army's commander for East Timor, Colonel Tono Suratman.
"The Falintil were worried and suspicious on Wednesday morning. None of them knew there was supposed to be a peace agreement," the witness said.
"They also thought it might be just a ploy so that military intelligence could take their pictures, so there was an agreement that no pictures would be taken."
In Jakarta, the military announced the peace agreement was signed by Martinho Amaral on behalf of 360 Falintil and Vasco da Cruz on the militia side.
Indonesian Military Chief General Wiranto on Wednesday was quoted by Information Minister Yunus Yosfiah as saying that last Saturday 220 members of the Falintil came down from the hills for a similar ceremony.
Wiranto told a cabinet meeting that another 1,000 were expected to soon follow. But Yosfiah did not say where the Falintil men went after the signing.