The killing and mutilation of a New Zealand peacekeeper in East Timor threatens further damage to Australia's fragile ties with Indonesia after the Howard Government yesterday demanded that Jakarta stop militia raids from West Timor.
The Prime Minister, Mr Howard, said yesterday that Jakarta had a "responsibility" to tighten control over the border between East Timor and Indonesian West Timor.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, said last night that he would raise the cross-border raids with his Indonesian counterpart, Dr Alwi Shihab, at the ASEAN Regional Forum security talks which begin in Bangkok today. "Ultimately, the only people who can bring the militias in West Timor under control are the Indonesians," he said. Dr Shihab condemned the killing and promised an investigation.
East Timorese independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao and the United Nations administrator in Dili, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, condemned the killing, and warned that the backing of violence in East Timor and other parts of the archipelago by factions of the Indonesian military appeared to be an attempt to destabilise the Government of President Abdurrahman Wahid.
The New Zealand soldier, Private Leonard Manning, 24, was shot dead in a clash with up to 15 militia on Monday near the East Timorese town of Suai, close to the where the New Zealand peacekeepers are based. His body was then mutilated and stripped of his rifle and ammunition.
He was the first peacekeeper killed in action in East Timor, and the first New Zealander killed on active service since the Vietnam War, which prompted an angry protest from New Zealand's Foreign Minister, Mr Phil Goff.
In a sign that the Indonesian military was behind Monday's clash, the Australian commander of peacekeepers on the border, Brigadier Duncan Lewis, said the militia fighters appeared to be professionally trained.
"They exhibited a level of military training which we haven't seen at this stage," he told ABC Radio. "They appear to have received a good deal of military training. They acted in an aggressive and a competent manner, from a military point of view."
There are fears the fall of the Wahid Government, leading to renewed power for the Indonesian military in Jakarta, could bring more militia violence to East Timor, where 1,500 Australian troops are deployed in some of the most dangerous areas near the border.
Mr Gusmao said in Bangkok that clandestine support for anti-independence militiamen was continuing in East Timor, and that similar tactics were being pursued on the eastern Indonesian island of Ambon, which has been racked by religious violence.
He said Private Manning's death was the work of people opposed to reconciliation. "That is why I hope the international community and the United Nations will send a clear message to Indonesia, to the Indonesian military, to dismantle the militias," he said.
Mr Vieira de Mello, also in Bangkok, expressed anger that more had not been done to contain militia activity. "We've been saying for months that the border should have been sealed long ago," he said. "These extremists, these thugs, these killers should have been disarmed, demobilised and removed from refugee camps, removed from the vicinity of the border."
Mr Howard said the soldier's death was a reminder that East Timor was still dangerous for Australian troops there. The Minister for Defence, Mr Moore, urged Jakarta to "stamp out" military activity in West Timor.
[Reporters: David Lague in Canberra, Craig Skehan in Bangkok and Mark Dodd in Dili.]