Jakarta – East Timorese militia supremo Joao da Silva Tavares has officially disbanded an umbrella organization for pro-Indonesian militias ordering them to hand over all arms, a report said here Tuesday.

The disbanding of the East Timorese Fighter Force (PPTT) came at a ceremony attended by Tavares and various militia leaders in a field in Atambua in West Timor on Monday, the Kompas daily said.

"Considering the MPR decree ... on the popular consultation in East Timor and the results of the PPTT meeting in Atambua in November on the prospect of the existence of the PPTT, we herewith state the disbanding of the PPTT," militia supreme commander Tavares said.

All militia members should now hand over their firearms, including home-made ones, to security authorities and get rid of all uniforms and hats, Tavares said. "All members of the PPTT should now become ordinary members of society," Tavares said in a written statement.

"With this disbanding, militia members can now return to East Timor and it is hoped that the pro-independence supporters will be able to accept them and together with them build a new East Timor that is peaceful, just, prosperous and democratic," said militia leader Pedro Pereira from Bobonaro district.

Tavaeres said in his statement that armed struggle was no longer suitable to the political views of the East Timorese loyal to the Republic of Indonesia, and political struggle was more realistic.

The official disbanding of the PPTT was also aimed at ending the impression that Indonesian West Timor was being used as a basis for the PPTT's armed struggle, Kompas said.

Tavares met Sunday with the leader of the pro-independence Falintil guerrilla forces, Xanana Gusmao, in the West Timor border town of Motaain.

Gusmao called on all East Timorese still in West Timor and in other Indonesian regions to return home and help build a free state of East Timor.

Gusmao said last week about 110,000 of his people are still in West Timor wanting to return, and both sides said after the meeting they were trying to make it easier for East Timorese refugees to come home. Tavares has reportedly called for guarantees that militia members would not become the targets of revenge attacks.

"We also have the right to stay in our own homeland, East Timor, but if they do that [revenge] we will not return home," Tavares has said.