Kupang – Former deputy commander of pro-Indonesian fighters in East Timor Eurico Guterres on Thursday denied that he would attack East Timor.

"I think the East Timor problem is over, and I am thinking to make peace for its future. But certain parties have circulated rumors that I will attack the country with my 150 men," he said in a phone interview.

He made the statement in response to a foreign media report that he would infiltrate into East Timor territory to attack the country which gained independence from the United Nations on May 20, 2001.

"I am now in Jakarta. How can I attack East Timor," he told Antara who called him from the East Nusa Tenggara town of Kupang. "The issue was intentionally disseminated by certain parties to divide and rule the people of East Timor so that there will never be peace there," he said.

Eurico said he received phone calls from various elements in Indonesian and East Timor societies asking him about the rumors. He called on the whole East Timorese people in Indonesia and East Timor not to panic due to the rumors.

East Timor was an Indonesian province before it seceded from the republic following the pro-independence camp's victory in the UN-organised ballot in August 1999.

The pro-integration faction could not accept the ballot returns and went on the rampage shortly after the UN Mission in East Timor (Unamet) announced the ballot returns in September 1999.

More than 250,000 East Timorese fled the territory to East Nusa Tenggara province to escape the deadly riots.