The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, announced yesterday that the August 8th vote on the future of East Timor would be postponed to an undetermined date some time in August.
"We have delayed it briefly but the ballot will go ahead in the month of August and the East Timorese will have a free choice," he told reporters at Moscow airport, according to a transcript of his remarks issued in New York.
Mr Annan, who spoke after arrival from St Petersburg on a four-day visit to Russia, said he based his decision on security and logistics for the balloting to determine whether East Timor's 800,000 people would have autonomy under Indonesia or, if voters reject that, independence.
The UN special representative, the Pakistani diplomat, Dr Jamsheed Marker, is currently in Indonesia discussing a new date with officials.
Tjitske Lingsma reports from Dili:
The political wing of pro-Indonesian East Timorese militias, known as the Forum for Unity, Democracy and Justice (FPDK), has accused UN officials organising the referendum of "uncivilised behaviour" in illegally searching houses and of hiring only pro-independence staff. The Indonesian government task force sent to the capital, Dili, to supervise the referendum has joined the criticism of the UN mission, UNAMET.
A UNAMET official and a UN civilian police officer with Indonesian police searched two houses for arms in Maubara, 60km west of Dili, on Saturday. None were found. In a document three promilitia groups said the UN "displayed uncivilised behaviour by searching and displacing all the articles found in these homes. . ."
An Indonesian government spokesman said it "deeply regrets" to learn from the police headquarters in Dili that UNAMET has been "improperly involved in investigating" two homes in Maubara.
The militias asked for the removal of the UNAMET head, Mr David Wimhurst, who has "often gone beyond his mandate" and to replace "all of UNAMET's translators which are recruited only from the anti-integration elements".
Meanwhile, the first contingent of 41 UN civilian police (Civpol) arrived in Dili from the northern Australian city of Darwin on Monday. It included two Irish, seven British, 15 Australians, six Spanish and 10 New Zealanders.
Eight other gardai who were to leave Ireland for Darwin last weekend were told by the UN to postpone their trip and may now leave next Sunday, according to a Garda spokesman.
An assessment team of three UN policemen arrived a week ago. One of their first operations was assisting at the handover of two East Timorese (one policeman and a militiaman) who had been taken hostage by the guerrillas of Falintil, who are fighting for independence.
On their way to the handover in the village of Leotola, in the western district of Liquica, UN Civpol and staff came across members of the Besi Merah Putih militia who were burning property, assaulting an old man and driving villagers of Leotola out of their houses. The militia were supervised by some five or six members of the Indonesian army.
With just over half the expected total of votes counted, Indonesia's ruling Golkar Party yesterday rose to second place in the latest official tally from elections earlier this month.