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UN angered by ransacking claim

Source
Sydney Morning Herald - June 23, 1999

Mark Dodd, Dili – Relations between the United Nations mission in East Timor (Unamet) and Indonesian Government representatives in the territory have plummeted, with the UN branding claims that its personnel ransacked villagers' homes "nonsense and lies".

Trouble has erupted over a statement released on Monday by the Jakarta government agency KPS, the Peace and Stability Commission appointed by President B.J. Habibie and designed to facilitate reconciliation between East Timor's warring factions.

The statement claimed a UN team of three women and two men went to western Maubara and "illegally searched the homes of local villagers to look for traditional weapons".

In searching the homes of a 54-year-old widow and a 35-year-old farmer in Vaviquina village in Maubara, the team "displayed uncivilised behaviour by searching and displacing all the articles found in these homes as well as clothing, luggage, and threw rice and other foodstocks to the ground", it said.

A copy of the same statement was published by the hardline pro-Jakarta group Forum for Unity, Democracy and Justice (FPDK) in the local Voice of East Timor newspaper.

FPDK also called for the UN spokesman for East Timor, Mr David Wimhurst, to be replaced, along with all the UN translators in East Timor, alleging that they were recruited from "anti-integration elements" and displayed pro-independence bias.

In a further sign of Indonesian Government displeasure at the UN's pursuit of illegal weapons, a Dili-based taskforce comprising senior Jakarta bureaucrats and diplomats issued a statement yesterday condemning the UN investigations.

At a UN briefing here yesterday, Mr Wimhurst denounced the KPS statement as "patently false". He said two UN officials accompanied by eight Indonesian police had searched two homes but denied they ransacked personal belongings. The team had obtained the permission of the home owners before searching for weapons.

"It's an astonishing way for an organisation [the KPS] to behave whose mandate is to advance stability and peace to publish information in the local newspaper which in any other country would be libellious," he said.

The UN would take up the issue with the KPS "in the strongest way", he said. "We work in a co-operative manner with the Indonesian police. It is the first time they have made such a statement that is patently untrue."

Meanwhile, the first elements of Civpol, including 15 Australians, have just arrived in East Timor and are being deployed to several trouble spots.

Their duties include helping to secure a safe environment for the referendum offering East Timorese a choice of either wide-ranging autonomy within Indonesia or independence, considered the most popular option among the 850,000 population.

The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, is expected to make an announcement within the next 24 hours delaying the August 8 referendum because of security problems and the unlawful participation of local government officials in pro-autonomy political campaigning.

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