Louise Williams, Los Palos – Less than two weeks after the brass bands and media circus of Indonesia's "goodwill" withdrawal of combat troops from East Timor in July, a big barge slid silently to shore under the cover of darkness on the lonely, distant coast to the east.

Here the locals usually retreat into their scruffy thatch huts as the sun sets over the brilliant turquoise ocean and endless white-sand beaches, their lives long defined by the grinding cycle of poverty, war and military abuse.

But, on the night of August 8 this year, villagers in the coastal settlements of Com and Lautem heard the soldiers coming back. Those who ventured out say at least 20 trucks full of commandos and marines crawled slowly up the winding road into the mountains, their lights off.

Ten days later, another barge of soldiers was seen heading through the crystal waters to the crumbling Portuguese port town of Lore. In May, with the fall of the Soeharto Government, the East Timorese had been buoyed by the first hopes of peace for 23 years, under promises of reform by the incoming President, Dr Jusuf Habibie. By June, talks between their spiritual leader, the Nobel Laureate, Bishop Carlos Belo, and President Habibie had secured a promise of a gradual end to military occupation and a search for a new peace formula.

The East Timorese Governor, Abilio Soares, spoke from the docks of Dili of Indonesia's "honour" as hundreds of troops boarded ships to leave in July. But this week, Bishop Belo and the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, were forced to call again for an end to Indonesian military activity. In Dili, a senior military officer confirmed troop numbers had not been cut. Those withdrawn during July's public relations exercise had been replaced. "It is correct we haven't reduced numbers. This is just a normal troop rotation," said Lieutenant Colonel Supadi, Chief of Staff in Dili, after the city was shut down by three days of protests over the new military operations.

There are reports of paramilitary groups being re-armed, fanning fears of civil war, says an informed Catholic Church source. He adds: "It seems nothing much has changed. The troops were withdraw for a while, but now they are back. The people were told not to go out into their fields because the soldiers would be carrying out operations in the bush."