Vorasit Satienlerk, Dili – A UN Security Council team toured the ruined capital of East Timor on Saturday as the world community drew up plans for a security force to restore peace to the bloodied territory.
The UN Security Council was due to open debate on East Timor on Saturday after Secretary-General Kofi Annan told Indonesia it could face responsibility for crimes against humanity there unless it allowed peacekeepers in.
Jakarta is under huge pressure to halt the massacres, carried out by anti-independence militia angered by the territory's recent, overwhelming vote in favour of ending Indonesian rule.
The UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) on Saturday reported a lull in violence around its compound in the capital, Dili.
The five-member Security Council team, in Dili on an inspection mission, travelled with armed forces chief General Wiranto amid heavy security.
A UNAMET spokesman said the night had been quiet with only sporadic shooting around the compound in Dili, scarred by days of murder, burning and looting. Thousands have been killed and the United Nations has voiced concerns about serious food shortages.
US President Bill Clinton blamed the Indonesian military for backing the killings by pro-Jakarta militiamen and also urged Indonesia to accept foreign peacekeepers. Jakarta said on Saturday an international peacekeeping force was an option. But it has yet to give any go-ahead.
Dili's houses have been torched and residents are either dead or have fled. UNAMET now offers symbolic protection to a dwindling group of pro-independence refugees, many of whom have fled for the hills behind the UN compound.
Mission official Pat O'Sullivan said there were about 1,000 refugees still in the compound and there was enough food.
"There are a lot of children running about which makes it difficult to make an exact count. Their mood is good, under the circumstances," he said. A member of the Security Council mission, British delegate Jeremy Greenstock, said before leaving for East Timor: "We are not going to go to war with Indonesia on this."
"It needs to be with the cooperation of Indonesia. I think Indonesia now realises that the burden of security has to be shared."
Security Council president Peter van Walsum said the council would await the return of the team to New York before adopting any resolution or issuing a formal statement.
The mission has been trying to persuade Indonesia to allow an international force to go to East Timor to quell the violence in the former Portuguese colony that Indonesia annexed in 1976. But Indonesia has insisted it can handle the situation alone.
Clinton, in New Zealand for a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders, said Indonesia must request a UN peacekeeping force. Asked when this might happen, he said: "I think you'll see a development in the next couple of days."
"Today we suspended all military sales and we continue to work to persuade the Indonesians to support a United Nations operation to go in and secure the safety of the people there and that's what we have to continue to do," Clinton said.
The United States and other nations are unwilling to send in peacekeepers without an invitation from Indonesia, the world's largest Moslem nation.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Britain, Canada, the Philippines and Portugal had given firm commitments to participate in a UN-mandated peacekeeping force if Indonesia consented.
Howard, also at the New Zealand summit, said the United States, Sweden, Thailand and France had agreed in principle to support such a force in a way that had yet to be defined.
He had said previously that up to 8,000 peacekeepers would be needed for such a force, which Australia would lead. Dramatic television footage brought in to Darwin showed the storming this week of a Red Cross compound in Dili.
Refugees cowered under fire from pro-Jakarta militia wearing red and white bandanas – Indonesia's national colours. Women and children were herded from the building as Indonesian police, some drunk and asking the cameraman for beer, sat and watched. A spokeswoman for East Timor resistance leader Jose Ramos-Horta said Clinton had agreed to meet him on Monday.
US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said on Friday the International Monetary Fund and World Bank should make any lending to Indonesia contingent on how it handles East Timor.