Associated Press at the United Nations – Britain joined the United States in warning overnight that Indonesia risked losing foreign aid if it doesn't immediately disarm militias and arrest those responsible for killing UN aid workers and wreaking havoc in Timorese refugee camps.
British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said Britain would be hard-pressed to continue extending support to Indonesia at an upcoming donor meeting in Tokyo if Indonesia fails to make progress on reining in the militias.
"At the most between now and 12 October, there may be time to show that that real progress has begun," Mr Greenstock told the Security Council. "But we do not believe ... that it has yet begun."
US Defence Secretary William Cohen warned during an official visit to Jakarta earlier this month that Indonesia risked losing financial assistance if it didn't move to break up the militias.
Deputy US Ambassador Nancy Soderberg echoed that warning overnight, saying the attitude of the United States and other donors at the Tokyo donor meeting "will certainly be influenced by the government of Indonesia's actions in the next couple of weeks".
The open Security Council meeting came after a two-day security crackdown by Indonesian authorities to disarm the militias netted just 21 weapons – all of which were voluntarily surrendered.
The UN administrator for East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, told ambassadors that the militias need not only be disarmed, but broken up entirely and their leaders arrested. "Regrettably, I remain skeptical that current activities will achieve this goal," Mr de Mello said. "Where resolution and a certain degree of ruthlessness would seem to be required, we are witnessing hesitation and prevarication."
In particular, he noted a disarmament ceremony last Sunday in West Timor that was disrupted when militia leader Eurico Guterres appeared with his supporters and reclaimed some of the weapons that had been handed over.
Mr De Mello said it was also galling that while there had been arrests in the September 5 slaying of a Timorese militia leader, there had been no arrests made in the deaths a day later in the West Timor town of Atambua of three international staffers of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
"There could hardly be a more eloquent demonstration of Indonesia's current inability to deal effectively with the problem," Mr de Mello said. "This is impunity running rampant."
Indonesian Ambassador Marakim Wibisono bristled at such criticism, saying such comments were "most unfortunate and ill-advised". He said the three slain UNHCR workers had ignored Indonesian warnings to leave Atambua "and hence could not be saved".
And he said the Indonesians had collected far more weapons than had been reported – even predating the announced start on Sunday of a voluntary collection period that has been followed by forcible disarmament.
"Every single one of these weapons could have maimed, injured or killed innocent civilians," Mr Wibisono said. "Any shortcoming of the handover ceremony should not deflect and cannot deflect from the basic indisputable facts that a large quantity of weapons were surrendered to the police on that day."