Jakarta – Feared ex-militia leader Eurico Guterres declared Thursday a "day of mourning for East Timor" and said its people could end up second-class citizens like Australia's Aborigines.

The United Nations was imposing Thursday's election for a constituent assembly on a people who were not yet ready to stand alone, he told AFP.

"This election is actually an election forced by the United Nations," Guterres said. "What might result is some sort of system where East Timorese will become like the Aborigines in Australia," he added, saying East Timorese would become second-class citizens in their own country. He declined to elaborate.

Guterres, who although born in East Timor is now an Indonesian citizen, claimed to have no interest in the poll – seen as the next step towards nationhood. "As an Indonesian citizen, I have nothing to do with the poll and have no interest whatsoever in it," Guterres said by telephone from Semarang in Central Java.

But he said that as an East Timorese native, he had his own views. Together with other East Timorese exiles in Semarang, he marked what he called "a day of mourning for East Timor".

In a UN-organised ballot exactly two years ago, almost 80 percent of East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia, which had annexed the former Portuguese colony in 1976. Guterres and his Indonesian supporters in East Timor have accused the UN of electoral fraud in 1999.

Guterres headed the pro-Jakarta Aitarak (Thorn) militia which terrorised Dili and surrounding areas long before the 1999 vote took place. His group also joined in the week of terror, killing and destruction that greeted the pro-independence result.

A senior Indonesian minister said Jakarta honored Thursday's democratic process in East Timor and supported the fledgling country. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, coordinating minister for politics and security, said comments by President Megawati Sukarnoputri had made it clear "that Indonesia honors the process in East Timor and has so far contributed to it".

He told reporters: "[East Timor] can do anything as long as it is democratic and fair and does not run counter to Indonesia's interests."