Jon Land – The brutal murder on September 6 of three United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) staff by pro-Jakarta militia thugs at Atambua marks a dangerous turning point for 120,000 East Timorese refugees languishing in camps around West Timor.

The UNHCR, International Office for Migration, World Food Program and all other international aid agencies have been forced to indefinitely suspend their operations and pull out of West Timor. With their withdrawal, the militias have won one of their main goals: the UN's departure from the refugee camps and West Timor altogether.

A UNHCR representative evacuated from Kupang, Jake Moreland, warned that the stranded refugees face a wave of militia violence. Moreland told SBS news on September 7, "We are disturbed by the reports of a large movement of militias from Atambua towards Kupang".

Moreland added, "The outlook for the East Timorese refugees, to be frank, is bleak. UNHCR, along with our partners, has been providing food to 160,000 recipients. In addition to that, we have been providing medical services, community services and helping those refugees who want to return home ... we will no longer be able to provide these services."

World leaders gathered at the UN's Millennium Summit in New York appealed for the Indonesian government to deal with the militia crisis, yet the UN has for several weeks been expecting some sort of attack by militia gangs.

Just hours before the incident at the UNHCR office in Atambua, UN authorities knew that a large mob of militia was mobilising in and around Atambua and had already destroyed 70 homes near the border town of Betun.

The militia have became more active and hostile across West Timor following clashes with UN soldiers earlier this year. They have targeted mainly aid workers and refugees, causing a steady decline in repatriation of refugees since April.

During August they held rowdy protests of several thousand people outside the West Timor provincial parliament and the UNHCR office in Kupang.

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid's announcement that his government will send in two more Indonesian armed forces (TNI) battalions to counter the militia does not bode well. Wahid has made similar announcements in the past but there has been no improvement in the situation in West Timor.

No militia gangs have been disbanded or disarmed by the TNI or the Indonesian police; there have merely been some token arrests and stage-managed weapon hand-overs to appease international critics.

In a media conference on September 7, Indonesia's security minister, retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, did not rule out that the TNI in West Timor is politically directing the militia.

The terror campaign by the militia gangs raises doubts about Wahid's ability to control the TNI and whether the militia leaders and Indonesian officers responsible for the atrocities committed last year in East Timor will be brought to justice under the Indonesian legal system. This has provoked renewed calls for the creation of an international war crimes tribunal.

The attack on the UNHCR office in Atambua was sparked by the death of militia leader Olivio Mendosa Moruk, who was murdered on September 5 by unknown assailants in the town of Betun. Moruk, a leader of the Laksaur militia, is a suspect named by the Indonesian attorney-general's department in connection with an incident in East Timor last year.

When the list of 19 suspects was made public on August 31, it did not include top level army generals like Wiranto or Zacky Anwar Makarim, who are considered to have played a major role in the way events unfolded in East Timor last year. Nor did it include three key militia leaders now living in West Timor: Eurico Guterres, his former "commander" Joao Tavares and Cancio Lopez da Carvalho.

Guterres, who was in Atambua on the day the UNHCR staff were murdered, maintains his status as protected terrorist thug through the Aitarak militia and his connections with the TNI and Indonesian vice-president Megawati Sukarnoputri. Tavares, who received patronage from the Indonesian military when he was a landholder in East Timor, has bought parcels of land in West Timor and warned of "contamination" of East Timor by the "white skins".

The list of suspects presented by the attorney-general's office received a mixed response from East Timorese. National Council of Timorese Resistance/National Congress leader Xanana Gusmao said it was "an act of courage worthy of applause" and that the Indonesian justice system must be "given time". His diplomatic comments contrasted starkly with the view of many East Timorese, who greeted the announcement of the suspects with anger and disbelief.

Bishop Carlos Belo commented, "The announced list is very incomplete ... for me the most important thing are the people who have suffered, from Los Palos to Oecussi. When they all receive compensation, and all those who committed crimes are tried, then justice will be complete. This is just a third of what is expected."

On September 8, Gusmao, along with fellow CNRT/NC leader Jose Ramos Horta, issued a statement calling on the Security Council to establish an international war crimes tribunal. "Only a tribunal will send a clear signal to the criminal elements who desroyed East Timor and continue to terrorise refugees, international staff and others, that the world does not tolerate their impunity", it said.

Avelino da Silva, general secretary of the Socialist Party of Timor, told Green Left Weekly that there needs to be greater international support for an international war crimes tribunal. "We appeal for a solidarity campaign demanding that all the criminals be put on trial", he said.

This sentiment was also expressed in the September 5 Timor Post by East Timorese human rights activists Aderito Soares and Aniceto Guterres, who commented that the list proves that the military still holds much power in Indonesia. The Timor Post's September 2 editorial demanded an international war crimes tribunal if Indonesia continues to protect the war criminals.

Indonesia's Legal Aid and Human Rights Association is highly critical of the government's investigations. "This list shows that the legal process has in fact become a tool for those most responsible to avoid prosecution." Respected human rights lawyer Johnson Panjaitan added that the investigative team has been "deeply influenced" by military and police chiefs. "They [the investigators] didn't have the courage to name people who should take most responsibility, like the top armed forces commanders."

The governments that have signalled the most support for the dubious investigations undertaken by the Wahid government are those leading the way in renewing and strengthening ties with the Indonesian military: the United States, Australia and Britain.

The representatives of these governments have argued that Indonesia needs to be given a chance to bring those responsible for human rights abuses in East Timor to account under Indonesian law, rather than through an international war crimes tribunal. They pressured UN secretary-general Kofi Annan to support the Indonesian government's investigations, ignoring the evidence and conclusions of the UN's investigative team that was in East Timor at the end of last year.

These states share responsibility for the crisis in West Timor. Their moves to normalise relations with the TNI undermine not only the process of compensation and justice for the East Timorese, but also progressive forces within Indonesia campaigning for real democracy and human rights.

National secretary for Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor, Pip Hinman, told Green Left Weekly, "The situation in West Timor demonstrates that Wahid has little control over the military. All military aid and ties with the Indonesian military must cease. The Howard government and leaders of other Western nations must provide all the resources at their disposal to bring home the East Timorese refugees."