John Martinkus, East Timor – They came in a snaking line across the high mountain pass. Exhausted but laughing, relieved to be at the end of a harrowing 20 kilometre walk.

Striding purposefully out front was Falintil pro-independence Commandante Sabica, wearing sunglasses and a captured Indonesian army uniform. Flanking him on either side were his men, their automatic weapons slung across their shoulders.

Behind, struggling up the final hill, a ragged line of 190 students, pro-independence supporters and people forced to flee in the face of pro-integration militia attacks on their homes.

They all showed signs of a long time in the jungle. Grimy clothes, long hair, beards and the assortment of old military clothes picked up in the guerrillas' camp made some of them hard to distinguish from the armed guerrillas marching beside them.

The faces of the refugees and the guerrillas reflected East Timors racial mix from successive generations of foreign domination.

The European faces of the Portuguese, the Japanese reflected in the shape of their eyes, the flat-nosed Melanesian almost Papuan-looking mountain people and of course the latest additions from Java, Bali and Sumatra all present in the features of those forced to live in the mountain camps of the pro-independence guerrillas.

They were finally coming out of hiding to register for the August 30 UN-sponsored ballot that will give the people here the choice of remaining a part of Indonesia or opting to become an independent nation.

The concept of independence is what has kept these people living in the remote interior of East Timor since the Indonesian invasion in 1975.

The regional Commander Sabica Besi Kalil is 44 years old and one of only 10 guerrillas who have survived the entire period in the mountains since 1975 fighting the Indonesians.

Before the war he was a sergeant in the Portuguese army for three years and was part of the group that formed Falintil, the armed wing of the pro-independence Fretilin party that declared East Timor independent only nine days before the full scale Indonesian invasion in December 1975.

"It was very dangerous for us in the whole period until 1992 when the situation began to improve in the jungle," he said. "Here, in this area it has been calm since last May. We hear the Indonesian troops on the radio, they are very dispirited and very afraid. In this area they know how strong we are here."

The guerrillas here in the mountains behind East Timors second largest town Baucau have now concentrated in one camp in the mountains which contains by their own estimates over 500 fully armed men and roughly the same number of refugees fleeing violence from the Indonesian authorities and the pro-integration militia.

"We have people here from Dili, Alas, Same, Baucau, Viqueque and Ainaro," said the Commander, running through the centres where militia violence campaigns have been conducted since November last year.

The refugees seeking shelter have caused problems for the guerrillas. "We have difficulties with food and the security for so many people but since the beginning of the militia campaign we had no choice," said Sabica.

Naturally, the refugees have to accept the discipline of a guerrilla army that has survived against huge odds in these mountains.

"The refugees are under the control of Falintil when we want to attack the militia they will have to obey the rule of the high command," he said.

But now Falintil are talking peace. In the last week they have agreed to a United Nations cantonment plan where they concentrate their guerrillas in four large camps, away from population centres.

The presence of United Nations military liaison officers in these cantonments was the requirement of the guerrillas effective cessation of military activities.

If there is a pro-autonomy result Commander Sabica says that result will be respected. "We are fighting for a democracy so if the result is autonomy we will obey it," he said.

The Falintil guerrillas escort the refugees to the UN registration centre, which is deserted as night falls.

The next day they will try and arrange for the UN to come back to the main camp to register the guerrillas, who are not yet prepared to come out of the mountains.

They fear a trick by the same military that has been trying to wipe them out for the past 24 years and is now charged, under the terms of the agreement signed in New York between Portugal, Indonesia and the UN, with the security arrangements for the August 30 ballot.