John Aglionby, Dili – East Timorese paramilitaries loyal to the Indonesian government took their campaign of fear into the centre of the capital, Dili, for the first time yesterday as the civilian governor admitted that anarchy was "erupting everywhere" across the territory.

In a display meant to intimidate the city's population, 350 members of the Aitarak militia paraded in front of the Portuguese colonial-era office of the governor, Abilio Soares, for two hours with wooden staves and imitation firearms.

"We're here to guard this town," their commander, Eurico Guterres, told them. "We don't want to make trouble, but if the pro-independence groups come here and attack the people, don't hesitate. Go to the warehouses, take the guns and kill them," he bellowed.

One of his lieutenants, Matteus da Carvallo, said later that the local government was going to pay the paramilitaries to begin patrolling the city.

Few people on the streets of Dili welcomed the new law enforcers. "We don't want them, they'll just make life worse for the people," a taxi driver, Manuel Tosca, said.

For the last four months more than a dozen such paramilitary groups have killed dozens of people across the territory annexed by Indonesia in 1976. Evidence is mounting that they are really part of an Indonesian army campaign to destabilise United Nations-sponsored negotiations seeking to find a peaceful solution to East Timor's status.

The population is supposed to vote in July on whether to accept wide-ranging autonomy status under Indonesian sovereignty, or to go for independence.

Mr Soares told reporters yesterday, however, that the ballot could not happen for the foreseeable future because "anarchy is erupting everywhere. The police and soldiers cannot control the situation."