Dili – The commander of Australian UN peacekeepers in East Timor has dismissed reports that former anti-independence militiamen have infiltrated from Indonesia and were behind recent attacks on Timorese villages.

"I firmly believe that there are no militias or armed groups crossing from [Indonesian] West Timor to East Timor", Lieutenant Colonel Michael Lean was quoted as saying Thursday by Australian daily "Courier Mail". "That does not mean that there aren't certain criminal elements with access to arms who committed the horrible acts in Atsabe", he added, referring to attacks on two villages on January 4 that killed six people.

Lt. Col. Lean, whose Australian troops are responsible for security along part of the Indonesian-East Timor border, said those attacks had likely been carried out by "criminals" bent on robbery and extortion. Information gathered by his units linked the attacks in Atsabe, some 60 kms southwest of Dili, to the theft of about USD 40,000 and jewels, assets that could be used in coffee and lumber contraband operations, the newspaper cited the officer as saying.

In the wake of those attacks and other violence, a captured alleged militiaman told interrogators last month that at least seven armed groups had infiltrated East Timor since December. He said the groups, bent on destabilizing the country, had been organized in West Timor by pro-Jakarta Timorese, including a chief sergeant in the Indonesian army.

The "Courier Mail" cited other UN peacekeeping officials as casting doubt on reports of subversive infiltrations, quoting Thai Major Nutt Sri-In as saying that Dili's security problems were "internal, not external".