John Martinkus, Dili – The Nobel Peace laureate Mr Jose Ramos Horta has blamed the Indonesian military for the militia border incursions that have seen Australian troops under fire in the past week.
Mr Ramos-Horta on Saturday dismissed Australian military claims that the attacks on Australian troops based in the isolated enclave of Oecussi were the work of one rogue militia leader, Moko Soares.
"These incursions are part of a wider strategy by the highest level in the Indonesian military to destabilise East Timor," he said. "Oecussi is only the first step. If Interfet does not take swift action these attacks will only become more frequent."
Mr Ramos Horta said the militias were waiting until the handover of security from the Australian-led Interfet force to the United Nations peacekeeping force under the transitional authority before widening their attacks.
The handover, due at the end of next month, will have worrying implications for the 40,000 East Timorese in the enclave, separated from East Timor by 60 kilometres of Indonesian- controlled West Timorese territory.
Under UNTAET the enclave will be controlled by one battalion of about 500 Jordanian troops. Jordanians are immensely unpopular in East Timor because of the close relationship between the former Indonesian special forces chief, General Prabowo, and the King of Jordan.
An East Timorese human rights worker, Mr Joaquim Fonseca, said: "When the situation in Jakarta was tense after Soeharto resigned and the investigators into corruption were getting close to Prabowo, he went to Jordan. The King is a friend of his; they went to military college together." Mr Jose Ramos-Horta agreed that "everyone knows the relationship between Prabowo and the King of Jordan. The UN made the decision without consulting us," he said.
The East Timorese have good reason to be afraid of anyone linked to General Prabowo. In the early 1990s, as special forces (Kopassus) commander, he organised the formation of three paramilitary units that were responsible for an escalation of the terror campaign against villages they suspected of harbouring Falintil pro-independence guerillas.
The units staged gruesome attacks as they withdrew from Los Palos in September, as Interfet landed in Dili.
Mr Ramos Horta said that sending Jordanian troops with links to the Indonesian special forces to guard Oecussi was "like sending wolves to guard the chickens".
"I raised this issue with them [the UN] one month ago. I found it totally inconceivable the UN would send the Jordanians to such a sensitive area. We hope nothing goes wrong. The UN could face very serious credibility problems with the East Timorese," Mr Ramos Horta said.