Under renewed pressure from the international community, Indonesia promised yesterday to close West Timor refugees camps within six months and stop pro-integration militias from raiding East Timor from the camps.
However such undertakings in the past have been thwarted by the militias and elements of the Indonesian military, and United Nations forces in East Timor are facing an upsurge in militia attacks in the lead-up to the first anniversary of the former Portuguese colony's vote for independence on August 30th.
Two UN peacekeepers, one from New Zealand and the other from Nepal, have been killed in recent weeks in clashes with suspected militiamen armed with modern weapons and operating inside East Timor - in a zone where some 50 Irish troops from the Second Infantry Battalion are stationed.
The militia, with little interference from the Indonesian army, holds sway over squalid camps in West Timor containing around 100,000 East Timorese out of an original quarter of a million people forced to evacuate their homeland as the militias and soldiers systematically destroyed towns and villages after the independence vote last year.
The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Alwi Shihab, said in Jakarta yesterday: "Frankly speaking, we have financial problems and up until now we do not get enough funding from the international community" to close the camps. However he said it had been decided "the actual time frame is now three to six months". He claimed that the process was meeting resistance. "We are confiscating weapons, but they are hiding those weapons, even last week we found some weapons buried, so we are trying," Mr Shihab said.
Far from disbanding, the militia have been growing more belligerent in recent weeks. On Saturday the UN withdrew most of its staff from Atambua, the main border town in West Timor, after 50 knife-wielding members of the notorious Aitarak militia - which killed dozens of civilians in East Timor last year - surrounded the UN's International Office for Migration which is trying to pave the way for a return of the remaining refugees. They were eventually dispersed by Indonesian military.
The head of the UN's mission in East Timor, Mr Sergio de Mello, said on Friday: "The solution is what we've been requesting from the Indonesian government since October last year, which is to identify - which is not difficult - disarm and detain those extremist elements who are operating from within the camps. That's what needs to be done, and as long as that doesn't happen then I'm afraid refugees will not come back and our people will continue to die."
The UN chief was scathing about Jakarta's promise to close the camps within six months. "Closing down the camps is a fairly vague concept," he said.
"Once you close them down, what do you do with the refugees? Do you throw them into the sea? Do you force them across the border?"
International agencies responsible for the repatriation of refugees were to meet Indonesian military leaders yesterday in the West Timor capital, Kupang, to negotiate the return of 20,000 East Timorese connected to the former Indonesian civil defence force (Milsus) in East Timor.
Many need convincing that they will not be targeted when they return to East Timor, where the UN is in control of security and all government agencies. Indonesian officers and members of the UN East Timor administration (UNTAET) and the East Timorese resistance, Falintil, met recently in Bali, and agreed to allow eight former members of Milsus travel to East Timor to see for themselves that their security could be guaranteed.
UN military officers in East Timor are growing increasingly concerned about the level of commitment shown by the once-ragged militia in recent attacks, and suspect former East Timor members of the Indonesian army are involved.
Private Devi Ram Jaishi (25), from Nepal, was shot in the chest in an ambush by militia on Thursday near the town of Suai, about 30 km inside East Timor from the border. Three other Nepalese troops and a civilian bystander were injured. New Zealand Private Leonard Manning, was shot dead on July 24th, also near Suai, and UN officers have since privately blamed rogue elements of the Indonesian special forces, Kopassus. After the incident, UN soldiers found Indonesian camouflage fatigues and a shirt bearing a special forces badge.
The UN military deployed along the mainly mountainous 172-km border include 750 Australian soldiers patrolling from Batugade to Maliana and Bobonaro, and a force of 650 New Zealanders, 280 Fijians and 50 Irish from the south to Bobonaro, including Suai.
The Australian deputy commander of UN peacekeepers, Maj Gen Mike Smith, warned that infiltrators already "might be lying low to hit some predesignated targets on certain dates". Thursday is Indonesia's national day and August 30th will be the first anniversary of the almost 80 per cent vote for independence by East Timor's 800,000 population.