John Martinkus, Memo – Local residents here on the East-West Timor border remain terrified of an Indonesian attack following this week's shooting incident between Indonesian troops and Australian Interfet soldiers.
Panic broke out as Indonesian troops began shooting across the border to provoke the Australians from Delta company Second Royal Australian Regiment who were stationed in the village, local residents told AAP.
"The women took their belongings and ran and we got our spears and knives and were ready for an attack," said Arnauldo Dos Santos, a resident of Memo. The Interfet statement concerning the incident released last night said only two TNI (Indonesian soldiers) were involved but the residents tell of a much larger Indonesian force and a heavy volume of shooting.
"It was a lot of soldiers we saw it with our eyes," local leader Apolinario Dos Santos said. "I was watching from near the Interfet post. They shot from here, there, over there and there," he said indicating with his hand the entire length of the shallow river that forms the border near here, less than 800 metres from the village.
Apolinario described how Interfet fired two bursts of automatic fire at the Indonesians as a warning and they withdrew.
"TNI were in the scrub along the river bed," he said pointing at the area which is almost a kilometre from the first sign – a skull and crossbones and a warning – that indicates the border of Indonesian controlled West Timor.
The residents of Memo are used to the shooting. Apolinario produced a log book of four seperate shooting incidents from across the border since November 28. yesterday morning when the eight Australian soldiers manning the post overlooking the river withdrew to other positions.
Interfet had manned the post continuously since they arrived on the border on October 20 and the local people feared the Indonesians would attack.
At the regional command for the Second Royal Australian Regiment in Balibo – 120 kilometres west of Dili - Lieutenant Colonel Mick Slater, commander of 2RAR, told reporters that an investigation into the incident would be carried out in the next few days. "Interfet troops would only return fire if their own lives or the lives of the people they are here to protect were threatened within the mandated area of operations," he said.
Lieutenant Colonel Slater did imply that the cause of the shooting may have been Indonesian troops hunting buffalo. But local residents who have endured Indonesian troops and pro- Indonesian militia attacks on their village on three occasions before their withdrawal in October see the continual shooting as a provocation for the Australians based here.
"In my opinion the TNI is ill disciplined. They shouldn't be firing so close to the border with international forces here," said Arnauldo Dos Santos, who witnessed the incident.
There are no millenium celebrations planned for the villagers or troops stationed along this ill-defined frontier, just the constant grind of ensuring the Indonesian military on the other side doesn't conduct it's so-called buffalo shooting into the territory of East Timor.