Kupang – The struggle of factions in East Timor to grab power in the government and political elite are viewed as having made the pro-integration group as the scapegoat.

An expert on East Timor, Mario Florensio Vieira, in an interview with Antara here on Friday said the accusation of a certain group in East Timor over the finding of around 74 firearms in a border area and the infiltration of former members of pro-integration group was actually a groundless political statement.

The target of that political statement was only designed at cornering members of the pro-integration group who preferred to become legitimate Indonesian nationals.

According to Mario, in East Timor there are two groups which have different political and economic interest in their mission.

The first was the group in East Timor who wanted to maintain the presence of UN troops, as it gained benefit in form of projects from the presence of UN troops there.

Politically, the presence of UN troops is seen as being able to guarantee the stability of the country's security in addition to maintain the status quo of Mari Alkatiri government formed under the UN supervised general election in the past.

Mario was of the view that Alkatiri's government had lost credibility in the eyes of East Timor's people.

The second was the group who was not accommodated in the power of Alkatiri's government. It (the group concerned) wanted the UN troop to immediately complete their mission in East Timor.

If the UN troops abandoned this newly independent country, members of this group will be able to make use of the existing opportunity to take over the power inconstitutionally by creating a chaostic condition in their mission to topple Prime Minister Alkatiri.

This group gained no economic benefit from the presence of UN troops in a long time in East Timor.

Mario concluded that members of the pro-integration group who had recently tended to choose Indonesian citizenship and to live in Indonesia were made as the scapegoat of the two groups' controvercy in East Timor.

According to him, East Timorese government would feel embarrashed if they let that country in a state of chaos, as the cause of riot had been so far directed at pro-integration group.

In fact, he added, the real facts showed that after Indonesia abandoned East Timor, the impact could be seen in a rift in the anti-Indonesia coalition group in that country.

The coalition dissolved and returned to militancy of their respective group to struggle for their own interest by using violance which had so far come up as the characteristic of East Timor, he said.