New York – Stressing that a climate of fear is still a reality in the East Timorese refugee camps in West Timor, US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke questioned Indonesia's ability to control the pro-Jakarta militia.

Speaking during a Security Council discussion on East Timor June 27, Holbrooke said that he is "deeply shocked by the continuing militia activities along and across the border into East Timor. The Indonesia government, its military, has failed to disarm and disband these militia," he said. Some militia members, he said, are now armed with more sophisticated weapons that they had previously.

"No one quite understands why the Indonesian government, which is making such a tremendous effort to grapple with an immense panoply of issues, has been unable to get this particular problem under control," the ambassador said.

Special Representative of the Secretary General Sergio Vieira de Mello informed the Council that elections and possibly independence for East Timor will take place at some point between August 30 and the beginning of December 2001. The date for East Timor's independence "is not the day in which the United Nations leaves," Holbrooke noted. "It is the day in which the United Nations continues a transition, but continues to assist the people of East Timor in a different way."