A delegation from the UN Security Council will visit the East Timor capital, Dili, tomorrow to assess whether the Indonesian military has kept its promise to end the killing and destruction there by pro-Jakarta militias and Indonesian troops and police.
If they are allowed to move around, which is doubtful, the five diplomats will find a city already razed and depopulated, with the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) reduced to impotence by rampaging militias, whose burning and shooting continued yesterday, though on a lesser scale.
Less than a week after East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia, the army-backed militias have delivered a humiliating blow to the UN. Jakarta continues to ignore world opinion by refusing entry to an international peacekeeping presence, despite desperate pleas from East Timorese leaders including Bishop Carlos Belo to prevent the population from being slaughtered.
Militias have killed a number of priests and nuns in the territory and there has been an unconfirmed report that the father of resistance leader Xanana Gusmao had been killed. Mr Gusmao was released from prison in Jakarta on Tuesday and is currently staying in the British embassy. Portugal's main diplomatic representative in Jakarta, Ms Ana Gomez, said yesterday: "A major humanitarian disaster is happening now and the Security Council may have the responsibility for a crime of genocide on its hands."
In Jakarta, government officials denied rumours that President B. J. Habibie of Indonesia had been pushed aside in a coup and that the Defence Minister, Gen Wiranto, had taken effective control of policy.
The president is "fully in control", Mr Habibie's spokeswoman, Ms Dewi Fortuna Anwar, told reporters. Gen Wiranto, who is also commander of the armed forces, said the cabinet and the military were united, despite cabinet opposition to his plan for martial law which was imposed in East Timor on Tuesday.
Ms Anwar warned against international pressure being applied to Indonesia as it could provoke a nationalist backlash, with people saying "Go to hell with your western aid, we don't need it."
Indonesia currently benefits from a $43 billion International Monetary Fund rescue package following the collapse of its economy last year. The only sanction taken against Indonesia is a token one - the withdrawal of direct military contacts by the US.
On Monday, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, gave Jakarta 48 hours to rein in the militia or face global pressure for UN intervention. Indonesia, which has an estimated 26,000 troops and police in East Timor has rejected the ultimatum.
UNAMET spokesman, Mr David Wimhurst, admitted in Darwin yesterday that international intervention "looks increasingly unlikely at the moment".
Up to 4,500 Australian troops would form the nucleus of a 7,000-strong UN force for East Timor, Australian officials said, but they will only be deployed with Jakarta's permission.
The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, who has taken a belligerent line against intervention, repeated his opposition to UN force yesterday. "If they come without our agreement and outside the UN, I think that the answer of Gen Wiranto is correct - don't try it," he said.
Over 200,000 of East Timor's population of 850,000 have been forced to flee from towns and villages in the last week since attacks began on the population following the 78.5 per cent support for independence in the UNAMET referendum. Mr Wimhurst said in Darwin that the centre of the East Timorese capital was a wreck.
A leader of the pro-Jakarta militias who led the wave of killings in East Timor yesterday said the militias had called a ceasefire. In a telephone interview with Portugal's RDP radio, Mr Herminio da Silva Costa, said they had halted their campaign at midday on Wednesday. However, shooting and burning by armed militias continued in Dili, where three previous militia ceasefires announced in recent months never came into effect. Mr Wimhurst said UNAMET would maintain a presence in Dili, but would evacuate its 160 locally employed Timorese staff to Darwin rather than expose them to attacks. "The important thing is to maintain a symbolic presence, Mr Wimhurst said. "We're still there. We haven't abandoned. We've not pulled out."
UN staff in Dili refused to leave their posts on Wednesday despite central orders to withdraw, fearing local staff and refugees would be murdered by militia. Mr Wimhurst said the order to pull out might have been too hasty.
In Dili, UNAMET chief, Mr Ian Martin, said last night "We will maintain our presence." Food, water, medical and sanitary items airlifted into Dili by a UN transport plane have alleviated the situation for the approximately 240 international staff and 160 Timorese employees.
Many of the 1,500 refugees sheltering in the compound fled to the mountains behind the compound on Wednesday night, fearing for their lives if UNAMET left. Meanwhile militias have attacked many East Timor refugees in West Timor, UN Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Asia-Pacific director, Mr Francois Fouinat, told reporters in Jakarta. He said he, too, had been attacked by pro-Jakarta refugees in one camp near Kupang. He estimated more than 45,000 refugees were sheltering in West Timor.
On Thursday, the Indonesian opposition leader and presidential frontrunner, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, visited two refugee camps at Kupang. "Do not be sad, we are one, brothers and sisters," she told thousands of people who had taken refuge in camps and empty buildings in Noelbaki village, on the outskirts of Kupang.