Filed at 2:33 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press, September 8, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-East-Timor-Peacekeepers.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Clinton administration is tiptoeing around the subject of U.S. participation in a possible international peacekeeping force in violence-wracked East Timor.

Although officials indicate such a role is under consideration, they are mindful it could stir up a new, unwanted battle in the GOP-led Congress.

Many members are increasingly wary of what they see as peacekeeping mission creep.

American agitation for such a force also could irritate U.S.-Indonesian relations in advance of this week's meeting of Asian and Pacific leaders in New Zealand, which President Clinton will attend.

The administration needs the support of lawmakers -- back today from a month's recess -- to keep U.S. troops in Kosovo beyond Sept. 30 and to pay for related Balkans reconstruction costs.

But many lawmakers are skeptical. Congress has been moving toward reducing deployments, not increasing them.

``The president was just beginning to do that in Haiti. Now, to talk about marching off to another area of the world where there is no clear threat to U.S. security interests is wrong,'' said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

The administration announced two weeks ago it would remove the remaining 450 active-duty U.S. troops from Haiti by early next year. It came in the face of expected congressional approval of legislation to require such a withdrawal.

Hutchison, author of legislation nearing passage that would require the administration to justify its overseas missions and end those whose goals have been met, said getting involved in East Timor makes little sense. ``We are carrying such a burden in the Balkans,'' she said.

Nor has the Pentagon been a cheerleader for additional entanglements.

Its forces are spread thin in South Korea, the Persian Gulf, Bosnia and now Kosovo -- while recruitment and re-enlistment are off and morale is sagging.

``Our hope and expectation is that the Indonesian military will do the job that its president has said it will do and provide adequate security,'' Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said.

If a U.N. Security Council team now in East Timor recommends a peacekeeping presence, ``We will, as will many countries, take a look at whether we participate,'' White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said on Tuesday.

The Southeast Asian island has been torn with violence following its vote last week to secede from Indonesia. Rampaging militias backed by the Indonesian military have slaughtered hundreds of pro-independence supporters and forced thousands to flee from their homes.

Sentiment in the region seems to be growing for an international force to restore order -- if Indonesia is unable to.

Rep. Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, said such a force seems needed given the bloodshed.

``But I don't think American troops are necessary,'' he said, noting that countries in the region -- mainly Australia and New Zealand -- have already offered troops.

``The main part that we can play is to help to get the Indonesians to accept a peacekeeping force there in the immediate future,'' he said. Gejdenson said the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting in New Zealand provides the ideal forum for the United States and its allies to work to persuade Indonesia to accept such a force.

Administration officials dispute suggestions by congressional Republicans that there is no direct U.S. interest.

State Department spokesman James Rubin cited sea lanes and international commerce through the region.

``To the extent that East Timor affects the stability of Indonesia, it therefore affects those sea lanes,'' Rubin said. ``More importantly -- or without grading it -- there is a clear human rights component.''

Clinton is expected to send Congress a new spending bill next week to cover Kosovo costs, estimated at about $3 billion to $4 billion.

The legislation, which could total $12 billion, is also expected to provide money for troubled farmers, help implement the Wye River Mideast peace accords, increase security at U.S. embassies and pay some $1 billion in delinquent payments to the United Nations.

Any proposal for a new U.S. peacekeeping role in South Asia could complicate debate.

``This Congress has a very broad isolationist streak. Lots of members just don't want to get involved abroad unless there's another Pearl Harbor,'' said Norman Ornstein, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.

---

By DAVID E. SANGER, September 8, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/090899timor-us.html

ASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration and the International Monetary Fund separately warned Indonesia on Tuesday that the financial aid that has kept the country economically afloat for the past two years could be suspended if violence in East Timor is not brought under control.

The State Department spokesman, James Rubin, said on Tuesday that "productive relations between Indonesia and the international community, including the IMF, depend on Indonesia adopting a constructive approach towards ending the humanitarian disaster in East Timor."

Several hours later, the fund, which has administered the multibillion-dollar emergency package to Indonesia since the Asian economic crisis struck two years ago this month, said it was considering holding up a review later this month of Indonesia's economic troubles. Without it, the fund's board cannot approve the next loan installment.

Administration officials said that the statements on Tuesday were clearly intended as a warning to President B.J. Habibie that his biggest claim to success so far -- that he has worked with the IMF and kept national bankruptcy at bay -- would be imperiled if he could not get Indonesia's military to stop the violence aimed at pro-independence East Timorese and U. N. personnel.

President Clinton is likely to have a chance to make that case to Habibie directly this weekend, when both leaders attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Auckland, New Zealand.

"There is a lot of running around right now, but no clear sense of what direction we should go and how hard to push," one senior administration official said on Tuesday. "No one is sure how much the U.S. could contribute to a U.N. peacekeeping force, even if one was invited in. No one is sure whether Habibie can control the military, even if we threaten to cut off the money."

If the administration carried through on its warnings, it would be suspending an aid package that the Treasury and Clinton's national security advisers scrambled to assemble in 1997.

Now, with the rest of Asia on the road to economic recovery, several of the Asian specialists inside the administration who talked two years ago about propping up the Indonesian state now wonder aloud -- though always off the record -- about whether the East Timor eruption might mark only the start of a breakup of the country.

Rubin was quick to say on Tuesday that his warning to Indonesia "doesn't mean that any specific loan or any specific fund" might be frozen. But the only real economic leverage the United States holds is its power within the IMF to block disbursement of the next payment of loans.

Those loans are partly designed to stabilize the banks, but they also allow Habibie to continue using government money to subsidize food and fuel. If those subsidies ended and prices soared, it could easily set off the kind of violence that helped oust President Suharto last year.

---

Filed at 8:14 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press, September 8, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Australia-East-Timor.html

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Australia is pressing ahead with plans to assemble a U.N. peacekeeping force of up to 7,000 troops to go to East Timor, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Speaking after an emergency Cabinet meeting to discuss the deepening crisis in the Indonesian province, Howard said he had spoken twice during the day to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

``We believe that unless the security situation is restored to a proper level, international pressure should still be applied to allow a peacekeeping force into East Timor,'' he said. ``Australia is willing to play a leading role in that force.''

In Jakarta, some 200 people rallied in front of the Australian Embassy to protest the burning of the Indonesian flags in several cities in Australia in recent days by members of the East Timorese community who were mourning the carnage in their homeland.

At least eight demonstrators managed to scale the embassy gate and enter the compound. They pulled down the Australian flag and burned it, replacing it with the Indonesian flag. They did not enter the building.

International pressure is mounting by the hour on Indonesia to allow peacekeepers into East Timor, where pro-Jakarta militias are running amok, killing and deporting independence supporters as Indonesian police and army sent to stop them look on.

Violence in East Timor has spiraled out of control since Saturday's announcement that the province had voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia. Martial law imposed Tuesday has done nothing to stop the bloodshed and destruction.

``Our judgment is that the situation on the ground is extremely bad,'' Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said. ``There are quite clearly militias roaming around, out of any form of apparent control.''

Australia is at the forefront of nations calling for an armed peacekeepers to be sent to East Timor. Canberra has offered to lead the force and contribute 2,000 troops.

But Howard insists such a force can only enter East Timor armed with a U.N. mandate and Jakarta's blessing.

Australia is anxious for U.S. troops to join any multinational force for East Timor but the Clinton administration, which already has committed troops to peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Kosovo, has so far offered only logistical support.

---

Filed at 6:05 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press, September 8, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Indonesia-Timor-Implications.html

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A small territory at the end of the world, East Timor is sending shock waves through giant Indonesia and affecting global politics.

For years, East Timor was one of the world's forgotten conflicts, despite the massive human rights abuses in the region, just an hour's flight from Australia.

An Indonesian military marched into the province in 1975, setting off a bloodbath that killed more than 200,000 people over the next quarter-century.

Activists disappeared, fathers never returned from prison, and fear silenced the territory's people devoted to the Roman Catholic church.

Yet, the calls for help went largely unheeded until two East Timorese activists won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996.

Now, East Timor is getting worldwide attention, as its ramshackle homes are torched and its residents flee an area smaller than Vermont.

The fighting has raised questions about whether the United Nations, which never recognized Indonesia's seizure of the former Portuguese colony, can shepherd it to full nationhood.

Increasingly, the shock waves are felt across Indonesia, the world's fourth most-populous country and the guardian of key sea lanes into the Indian Ocean.

Though the violence in East Timor is unlikely to chase President B.J. Habibie from office before the next president is chosen in November, the crisis could leave the world's most populous Muslim nation without strong leadership at a critical time.

Habibie today canceled plans to attend a major summit meeting in New Zealand -- perhaps recalling the absence of his predecessor, Suharto, from the country shortly before he was driven from office last year.

East Timor has been an economic drain on Indonesia, which has pumped in desperately needed money to build up its infrastructure.

In one of the few economic bright spots, the popular Starbucks coffee chain is among those using East Timorese beans.

Exports could grow further, if the lawlessness around plantations in Timor's central mountains is replaced by peace and stability.

Sales of organically grown Arabica beans to the United States and other Western countries are expected to bring in more than $20 million this year.

However, the huge oil and natural gas reserves in the Timor Gap area between East Timor and neighboring Australia are expected to form the backbone of the fledgling nation's income.

One worry is that East Timor could increase unrest in two other provinces of Indonesia, and eventually inspire secessionist movements elsewhere in the Pacific Rim.

Indonesia consists of 13,000 islands and hundreds of ethnic groups.

Jakarta's bungling of the East Timor crisis, which threatens to turn Indonesia into an international outcast, could also hamper the country's economic rebound.

The World Bank today warned Indonesia that a failure to resolve the chaos could threaten international donor aid pledged last July.

The crisis has also put the Clinton administration in the hot seat, as the world's only superpower and the country that would have to endorse -- if not necessarily take part in -- a U.N. peacekeeping force.

Clinton administration officials dispute suggestions by congressional Republicans that there is no direct U.S. interest.

State Department spokesman James Rubin cited the sea lanes and international commerce throughout the region as examples to the contrary.

``To the extent that East Timor affects the stability of Indonesia, it therefore affects those sea lanes,'' Rubin said. ``More importantly -- or without grading it -- there is a clear human rights component.''

---

Filed at 7:10 a.m. EDT, By The Associated Press September 8, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Indonesia-East-Timor.html

DILI, Indonesia (AP) -- The United Nations will evacuate its staff from the besieged compound in East Timor's devastated capital, a spokesman said today.

Spokesman Brian Kelly told reporters that 206 international staffers and 167 East Timorese working for the world body and members of their families would be flown out starting 10 a.m. Thursday.

``There may be more local staff who will join us, but we haven't yet completed registering who's in the compound at the moment,'' Kelly said. ``This has been negotiated at the absolutely highest level.''

In addition to the U.N. staffers, more than 1,000 East Timorese citizens have sought shelter in the complex of U.N. buildings in southern Dili after pro-Indonesian militias backed by the army and police unleashed a reign of terror in the city.

In an effort to drive them out, troops and militiamen cut the compound's water and power supply. They have also prevented U.N. staffers from bringing in badly needed food and medical supplies.

Today's announcement came as houses burned just 40 yards from the besieged U.N. compound in Dili and as Indonesian troops tightened their stranglehold on the complex in an attempt to force international officials to leave.

Witnesses who ventured into the deserted city streets said Indonesian soldiers were ``looting everything in sight,'' carrying furniture out of abandoned houses and loading it onto trucks.

As panic-stricken refugees continued to flee the chaos today, Indonesian President B.J. Habibie canceled plans to attend a summit of Pacific Rim nations in New Zealand.

State Secretary Muladi, who uses only one name, said Habibie had decided not to attend but denied that the decision was motivated by the escalating crisis in East Timor.

Leaders of the 21-nation Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meet in Auckland next week. Indonesia is likely to come under fierce criticism for its handling of the crisis.

APEC nations have been pressing Jakarta to allow international peacekeepers into East Timor to replace Indonesian security forces that are blamed for causing the mayhem. But Foreign Minister Ali Alatas reiterated today there are no plans for such intervention at this time. He also canceled plans to attend the APEC meeting.

Meanwhile, a high-level U.N. delegation arrived in Jakarta, seeking Indonesian guarantees it would restore order in the embattled province and saying the international community should be more involved there.

In Dili, looters ransacked stores throughout the provincial capital, much of which has already been gutted by fire.

``They are clearing out Dili and destroying it,'' said a pro-independence activist who reached the U.N. compound today.

``They are trying to kill all the educated people so we cannot develop our country,'' said the man who declined to be identified for fear of retribution.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that thousands of refugees continued to cross by road into neighboring West Timor today.

Some 50,000 people had crossed the border at the town of Atambua, Indonesian officials on the scene said today. A dozen camps had been set up to house the refugees, who appeared to be mainly members of militia families and Indonesian migrant workers.

Boats and ferries were another way out. U.N. officials said that 4,000 people crowded the Dili waterfront this morning, waiting for ferries to take them to the safety of nearby islands.

The United Nations estimates that 150,000 to 200,000 people have fled their homes, or the province altogether, since Saturday's announcement that 78.5 percent of the voters had approved independence from Indonesia in a U.N.-sponsored referendum on Aug. 30.

Indonesia has accused the United Nations of rigging the ballot.

``What the United Nations are doing is not respecting the rights of the pro-autonomy people,'' said Dili mayor Mateus Haia. Voters had the option of keeping East Timor within Indonesia but with wide-ranging autonomy.

Speaking in Kupang, in Indonesian-controlled West Timor, Haia claimed that up to 60 percent of the voters had opted for continued union with Indonesia.

``We completely reject the result because it was so biased,'' he told the local television station.

A five-vehicle U.N. convoy was attacked and fired on in Dili by a gang of 50 militiamen armed with M-16s, clubs and machetes, as it sought today to load desperately needed supplies at a warehouse along the waterfront.

The convoy sped away, but not before the militiamen smashed the windows of the vehicles with clubs.

---

9/07/99- Updated 06:38 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue01.htm

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia freed an East Timorese rebel leader Tuesday after seven years of detention, hoping he could help calm the desperate situation in his native half-island territory after it voted for independence.

However, with pro-Indonesian militias killing and burning in a rampage on East Timor, it may be too dangerous for Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao - sometimes called the Nelson Mandela of East Timor and widely expected to become its first president - to even set foot in his homeland for now.

Gusmao will take up residence in the British Embassy in Jakarta until he decides on his next move, said British Ambassador Robin Christopher.

Smiling shyly, the 53-year-old Gusmao was mobbed by reporters as he left the tiny, sun-baked government guesthouse that has been his home in recent months. The house had a view of barbed wire and a gun tower from the prison next door.

Instead of his guerrilla fatigues of years past, Gusmao was dressed in a gray suit and tie. He got into a government car and was whisked to the Justice Ministry, where an order signed by President B.J. Habibie granting him freedom and amnesty was read.

Gusmao, who led the rebel group Freitilin against Indonesian forces that invaded in 1975, was captured in November 1992 and given a 20-year prison sentence. Jakarta had promised to free him after results were known from an Aug. 30 referendum in East Timor.

In that referendum, East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence. In response, militias believed backed by the Indonesian military have unleashed a wave of violence. Hundreds are feared dead, and tens of thousands have fled their homes.

"I promise as a free man I will do everything to bring peace to East Timor and its people," Gusmao told a mob of journalists.

But Gusmao's tools are limited, and his main strength for the time being may be his moral authority. He is revered by the territory's pro-independence majority, and even Eurico Guterres, notorious leader of the violently anti-independence Aitarak militia, has expressed respect for Gusmao.

Indonesian and U.N. officials were on hand to greet Gusmao.

"This is a very important step toward restoring the situation in East Timor and re-establishing peace in the territory," said U.N. representative Samuel Tamrat. "We hope that in the near future, Mr. Gusmao will be able to return to his homeland and actively contribute to the establishment of peace."

Gusmao's supporters have expressed fears he could be killed if he returns to East Timor amid the current bloodshed, but many believe he is the only hope for reconciliation.

Justice Minister Muladi Indonesia would ensure Gusmao's safety for as long as he remains in the country. Muladi, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.

---

By John Martinkus ASSOCIATED PRESS, Washington Times September 7, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/internatl/internatl1.html

DILI, Indonesia Indonesia imposed martial law in East Timor early Tuesday as thousands of refugees fled the capital and anti-independence militias continued a wave of terror, torching homes and reportedly slaughtering hundreds of civilians.

Indonesia, meanwhile, released rebel leader Jose Alexandre Gusmao in hopes he can help calm the desperate situation in his native East Timor.

World leaders indignantly called for Indonesia to make good on its pledge to provide security in the provincial capital, Dili. But witnesses said Indonesian troops were aiding the militias and trying to intimidate journalists and U.N. workers into fleeing the territory.

Stung by international criticism, President B.J. Habibie signed an order imposing martial law. It wasn't until Monday that senior officials even acknowledged security had broken down in East Timor.

"There are many dead," military spokesman Brig. Gen. Sudrajat, who announced the martial law order, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. "Nothing is working and there are so many refugees."

Mr. Gusmao, 53, had been held under house arrest in Jakarta, and his independence supporters worry for his personal safety if he travels back to the bloodbath in East Timor immediately.

Mr. Gusmao, widely expected to become president of an independent East Timor, left the house at 9:50 a.m. He immediately got into a government car and was whisked away to the Indonesian justice minister's office. The government granted him freedom and amnesty, officials said.

With the military already out in force on the island, it was not immediately clear what effect the martial law order would have. However, it would formally give the armed forces full control over the province where civilian administration has virtually collapsed.

The Clinton administration on Monday joined several other governments in urging Indonesia to quell the disorder or invite in outside forces to keep the peace.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that if the violence continues "the international community will have to consider what other measures it can take to assist the Indonesian government. "

U.N. spokesman Nick Birnback said Tuesday that the 400 U.N. staffers would remain in Dili. U.N. officials evacuated 300 of their elections workers Monday. More than 2,500 refugees were still in the U.N. compound, seeking a safe haven from the fighting.

Many houses had been burned down overnight and thousands of people were at the Dili dock, waiting for ferries out of the city, witnesses said Tuesday.

The city spiraled into chaos after the announcement Saturday that East Timorese had voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Indonesia in a U.N.-supervised referendum.

Bands of pro-Indonesian militia set houses ablaze, fired rocket-propelled grenades and bazookas, and shouted through megaphones for those remaining in the city to get out. Witnesses said both militiamen and Indonesian troops loaded people onto trucks and sent them to West Timor, an Indonesian province that shares the island with East Timor.

"There is very clear evidence of collusion between elements of the (Indonesian) security forces and the militias to deport East Timorese forcibly to West Timor and elsewhere," said Mary Robinson, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. "An integral part of this campaign is to terrorize the population with the most gruesome abuses of their fundamental rights."

Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio said the U.N. Security Council was responsible for the deteriorating situation.

"The international community, which knows how to intervene in cases of serious human rights violations, must adopt the same measure under the threat of witnessing a people's genocide," he said.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1975 and has held it in an iron grip ever since. It is estimated that 200,000 civilians were killed in the last 25 years.

Refugees streamed into West Timor at a rate of 1,000 per hour Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in Geneva. Some 25,000 people had already been forced from the capital, it said.

Pro-Indonesian militiamen killed more than 170 people Monday, according to the East Timorese International Support Center, based in Darwin, Australia.

Witnesses reported seeing soldiers escort militiamen during an attack on thousands of refugees hiding in the residence complex of Bishop Carlos Belo, East Timor's spiritual leader and the winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize.

The militia fired at the refugees, killing at least 39, and left the bishop's house burning out of control, said pro-independence leader Manuel Carrascalao. That death toll could not be independently confirmed. Belo was at home during the attack, but was uninjured. He was later evacuated to the eastern town of Bacau.

Militiamen firing guns also stormed the local Red Cross headquarters immediately next door.

The Red Cross said 11 of its delegates and eight other foreign aid workers were taken at gunpoint to a police station, but the whereabouts of the local employees and more than 2,000 people who sought shelter in its compound were unknown.

Workers from the Carter Center, former President Jimmy Carter's Atlanta-based center that was monitoring the election, were also evacuated.

President Clinton focused on the East Timor issue Monday in a telephone conversation with Annan. Clinton spokesman Barry Toiv said the two "discussed ways to encourage Indonesia to do what is required to bring security to East Timor."

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard told Clinton he was ready to send troops to East Timor if the Indonesian government asked, Mr. Toiv said.

Portugal, France, Australia, and Britain have said they support sending a U.N. force to East Timor, but Britain said Indonesia would need to ask for assistance first.

"Either Indonesia has to take care of the situation itself or allow the international community to come in," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said during a visit to Vietnam.

Mr. Annan was to brief a high-level Security Council delegation before it left for Jakarta on Monday evening in an effort to quell the violence, which left four U.N. workers dead and six others missing and presumed dead.

The mission will include the U.N. ambassadors from Namibia, Malaysia, Slovenia and Britain, and Alphons Hamer, a Dutch diplomat.

Mr. Habibie met Annan's special representative, Jamsheed Marker, and planned to speak to Annan by phone Monday night.

Megawati Sukarnoputri, front-runner to succeed Mr. Habibie when Indonesia selects a new president in November, offered her "utmost apologies" on behalf of Indonesia to the people of East Timor for the past quarter-century of violence.

---

By Keith B. Richburg Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, September 7, 1999; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/07/120l-090799-idx.html

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Sept. 7 (Tuesday)Indonesia declared martial law today in violence-wracked East Timor, where rampaging militias -- backed by locally recruited soldiers and policemen -- began executing independence leaders and rounding up thousands of people in an apparent effort to crush opposition to continued Indonesian rule.

The declaration places East Timor under direct military control and suspends all civil liberties in the island territory. But many people here questioned the rationale for the ruling, since the military was already supposed to be in charge in the territory, and some worried that the declaration might give legal cover to even more army-backed violence.

"They are going to use martial law privileges to shoot more people legally," East Timorese independence activist Jose Ramos-Horta told a television interviewer.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the martial law announcement could be a prelude to intervention by a U.N.-sponsored peacekeeping force -- now being formed -- if the Indonesian government cannot quell the violence in East Timor. (Story on Page A15).

The declaration came as diplomats and other analysts here said they had received evidence that thousands of Indonesian troops and policemen native to East Timor had deserted their units and were joining with the pro-Indonesian militias in their bloody campaign against the independence movement.

"It's a mutiny-like situation," said a Western military analyst. "You've got a breakdown of command and control and a lot of desertions."

Analysts said the desertions raised questions about whether Gen. Wiranto, commander of the Indonesian armed forces, could be orchestrating the mayhem, or, perhaps more worrisome, whether he had lost control of the army. The government of President B.J. Habibie announced Monday that it had rejected a proposal by Wiranto to institute martial law in East Timor, so the overnight turnaround led many here to wonder exactly who is in charge in Indonesia -- Habibie or Wiranto.

The mounting bloodshed in East Timor, and the involvement of large numbers of soldiers and policemen, seemed likely to damage Indonesia's international image just as the country was hoping to show the world it had shed its authoritarian, sometimes brutal past and was ready to join the community of democratic nations.

"This is bad not only for Timor but Indonesia as a whole," said a Western diplomat in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. "If these dark forces can take over in Timor, can they do the same here?"

In an apparent effort to counter such perceptions, the Jakarta government this morning freed the jailed leader of the East Timorese independence movement, Xanana Gusmao, a 53-year-old Jesuit-trained poet-turned-guerrilla who has been widely expected to become the first president of an independent East Timor.

Gusmao, who has been seen as a voice of moderation and conciliation in his homeland, served six years of a 20-year sentence -- the last seven months under guard at a government guest house. His intentions were not immediately clear. In a brief statement after his formal release at the Justice Ministry, he declared only: "I promise as a free man I will do everything I can to bring peace to East Timor."

The government had initially wanted to send Gusmao directly to Dili, East Timor's capital, but his supporters rejected that proposal, saying it amounted to a virtual death sentence since the anti-independence militias control the streets. He has been offered asylum in the United States and Australia, but his lawyers said the resistance leader had not yet decided what course he will take.

The violence gripping East Timor has shattered a U.N.-sponsored peace plan for the territory just a week after voters there overwhelmingly rejected a referendum on autonomy, opting instead for independence from Indonesia. The United Nations now has no presence in the Western part of the territory, half its staff is being evacuated, and most of those who remain are barricaded in their compound, unable to venture outside.

In Dili, well-armed militiamen fired into the International Red Cross compound Monday, shot at the Australian ambassador's car and burned down the home of the city's Roman Catholic archbishop and spiritual leader, Carlos Belo, the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Belo was not harmed and was taken by police helicopter to the eastern city of Baucau, to the home of fellow Bishop Basilio de Nascimento, who described Belo as in "a state of shock."

The death toll from the rampage was believed to be in the hundreds, and one diplomat here said she had heard reports of bodies being dumped into mass graves across the territorial border in West Timor, which is part of Indonesia. Among those targeted for execution were well-known independence leaders, according to diplomats and other sources.

"In Atambua [in West Timor], we have heard reports that many people are being killed, and big holes are being dug to bury them," said Ana Gomes, who heads the Portuguese consulate here. The reports could not be independently verified, as most journalists and other international officials have left the territory.

"This is a nightmare," Gomes said. "This is as bad as the things we had in Rwanda" during the 1994 massacre of Tutsis by Hutu militants.

An estimated 6,000 East Timorese serve as troops and noncommissioned officers in the Indonesian armed forces in the territory -- including two all-Timorese battalions. In addition, about 1,000 East Timorese serve in the national police force in Timor, according to military analysts. Most of these soldiers and police officers are said to have mutinied and to be responsible for much of the current mayhem.

Diplomats, U.N. officials and other foreigners in East Timor have reported seeing policemen and army troops firing on vehicles and openly assisting the anti-independence militias. Until Monday, diplomats and others had said they were unable to confirm that any troops had deserted their units.

Wiranto has said he is sending three more army battalions to East Timor to help quell the violence, which erupted Saturday after the results of the Aug. 30 referendum showed that an overwhelming 78.5 percent of East Timorese voters had chosen not to remain part of Indonesia.

Some of those troops have already arrived, but diplomats there said that the soldiers, many of them Javanese, have found themselves outnumbered by the East Timorese mutineers and that there already may have been clashes. "We've already heard reports of soldiers shooting soldiers," a Western military analyst said.

While the situation in East Timor appeared to be out of control, diplomats and others said the word "anarchy" does not properly describe conditions there. Armed mobs rule the streets, they said, but they appear to be acting with purpose and direction. The violence also seemed well-planned.

Take for instance the assault on Archbishop Belo's residential compound, which had become a makeshift refugee camp for more than 5,000 people who had fled the fighting and believed the house to be a sanctuary. Among those who sought refuge there was Olandina Kairu, a well-known independence leader.

When the militiamen came to Belo's residence, they fired into the compound but apparently at the ground, not directly at the people. They then loaded the people onto military trucks, and various reports said they were taken west to Atambua.

Afterward, Belo was given safe passage by Indonesian police, who flew him to Baucau. His house was then set ablaze. There was no word on Kairu's fate.

Next to Belo's house is the compound of the International Red Cross, which had become a haven for about 2,000 people. Some reports said militiamen first separated the East Timorese from the foreigners at the compound, then marched them away. The foreigners -- 11 Red Cross staff members and eight other aid workers -- were turned over to the police and then taken to the airport to leave.

As of midday today, the martial law declaration seemed to be having little impact. About 10 a.m., the U.N. compound in Baucau came under a sustained, 15-minute attack by militiamen, prompting the Australian government to send in a C-130 cargo plane to evacuate 138 foreigners, including U.N. staff members and other aid workers. Baucau was the only U.N. post remaining outside of Dili.

In Dili, a U.N. spokesman reached by telephone said there had been continuous automatic weapons fire outside the U.N. headquarters compound since dawn. "We're hunkered down and we're taking care of the 1,500 refugees here as best we can," he said.

East Timor was a Portuguese colony until 1975, when a civil war broke out between pro- and anti-Marxist groups. Portugal -- beset by political upheaval at home -- withdrew from the territory and Indonesian troops invaded. Indonesia annexed the territory the following year, a move recognized by few countries.

For the past 24 years, East Timorese guerrilla forces have waged a low-level campaign for independence from Jakarta. The territory, roughly the size of Connecticut, has a population of about 800,000 and occupies about half the island of Timor.

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By Colum Lynch Special to The Washington Post Tuesday, September 7, 1999; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/07/051l-090799-idx.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6The United Nations is in the "advanced stages" of planning for military intervention in East Timor to try to help halt the rampant violence that followed the territory's vote for independence last week, senior U.S. and U.N officials said today.

Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Canada and a handful of other countries have made commitments to participate in a multinational force that U.N. sources say could total 5,000 to 7,000 troops with the authority to crack down on rampaging anti-independence militia groups, the officials said. But they said that any decision to order foreign troops into East Timor would require the approval of the Indonesian government and the U.N. Security Council.

The mission, which has been the subject of weeks of secret negotiations at the world body, would probably be led by Australia, the sources said. If it receives the green light, it would be prepared to begin deployment within a week, according to diplomats familiar with the plan.

A senior U.S. official said the United States would probably provide logistical and political support for the operation, but no troops. President Clinton spoke by phone today with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who has put Australian troops on emergency alert for possible deployment.

Senior U.S. and U.N. officials were anticipating Indonesian President B.J. Habibie's declaration of martial law, which will provide his army one last opportunity to demonstrate it can end the violence. But if it is unable to restore calm within two to four days, the officials said, the government will face intensive pressure to let foreign troops do the job.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said tonight that he and Habibie had reached agreement on the "need for further measures to be taken to restore law and order in East Timor and secure the safety of [U.N.] personnel and all East Timorese."

Annan's envoy to East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, said that Indonesia has failed in its obligation to ensure security in the territory. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, in a news conference in Hanoi, said for the first time that Indonesia needs to consider asking for help.

"Either the Indonesian government takes care of the violence or lets the international community be of assistance," Albright told reporters.

The U.N Security Council, meanwhile, dispatched a team of five diplomats from Britain, the Netherlands, Namibia, Malaysia and Slovenia to Jakarta to press the government to exert control over the rampaging militias, soldiers and policemen in East Timor.

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Updated 10:57 PM ET September 6, 1999
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990906/22/international-timor-us

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (UPI) The Clinton administration has hinted that it would support an international peace force in East Timor if Jakarta agrees to such a presence.

A State Department official said tonight that the United States believes Jakarta "must either take immediate steps to end the violence or invite the international community to be of assistance."

Such assistance would likely be in the form of armed international peacekeepers. Australia has proposed sending forces from a "coalition of the willing" in advance of U.N. peacekeepers, due to enter the violence-wracked territory later this year, after Indonesia formally endorses the region's overwhelming vote for independence.

So far, the United States has been insisting that the Indonesian government is responsible for, and fully capable of, reining in pro- Indonesian militias responsible for most of the carnage. But today's statement suggests Washington might back the Australian proposal.

The U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, said the United States is "appalled" by the violence that has killed hundreds of people, including at least 100 over the past two days.

The official blamed Jakarta's military and police forces for "allowing, and in some cases participating in, these abuses."

"Indonesia is not fulfilling its commitment to the international community to provide order and security in East Timor, and the general breakdown in law and order has created an untenable situation," the official said.

The official urged Jakarta to "adopt a positive approach toward offers of assistance."

In an emergency session Sunday, the U.N. Security Council dispatched a five-member mission to Jakarta to determine whether armed peacekeepers should be sent to East Timor.

A White House spokesman traveling with President Clinton said the president conferred by telephone today with Australian Prime Minister John Howard and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Clinton and Annan "discussed ways to encourage Indonesia to do what is required to bring security to East Timor," said spokesman Barry Toiv. "What is key now is that the Indonesian government act quickly to provide a secure environment in East Timor and meet its commitment to carry out the result of the referendum."

East Timor was annexed by Indonesia in 1975 after winning independence from Portugal. Thousands of East Timorese died in the ensuing years of brutal suppression by successive governments in Jakarta.

In an Aug. 30 referendum supervised by the United Nations, 78 percent of East Timorese voters chose independence over autonomy within Indonesia.

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Associated Press Tuesday, September 7, 1999; Page A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-09/07/044l-090799-idx.html

PORT SAID, Egypt, Sept. 6-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has survived a series of assassination attempts, brushed off an attack today that left him grazed and the assailant dead.

The afternoon assault came as hundreds of people chanting Mubarak's name and carrying his photo thronged the streets of Port Said--located about 100 miles northeast of Cairo at the northern end of the Suez Canal--to welcome the presidential motorcade.

Mubarak, riding in a black luxury car, was visiting the northern city to tour industrial projects and deliver a speech ahead of a presidential referendum.

"While the president was waving . . . through the car's window, a person approached the motorcade holding a sharp tool and inflicted a light wound," said a statement from the president's office. It indicated Mubarak was wounded on the arm.

Security guards killed the assailant, the statement said. It did not explain how the assailant was killed, but gunfire was heard immediately after the man attacked Mubarak.

The attacker was identified in a police statement as Said Hassan Suleiman, 40, a clothing vendor who "has been known for impulsive behavior and recklessness." The statement said he had "no political affiliations."

Suleiman's neighbors, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they believed he was an Islamic fundamentalist. They said he was arrested nearly two months ago for suspicion of belonging to a militant group but was released three days later. He always carried a pocket knife, they added.

Mubarak's wound was treated with a disinfectant. Appearing composed, he spoke as scheduled about an hour after the attack and made no mention of it. He had changed from a brown to a dark blue suit.

Sources said Mubarak left to spend the night at the coastal resort of Sharm el Sheik, where a day before he had presided over the signing of a new Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. He is scheduled to travel to Libya Tuesday for a summit of Afric leaders.

Egyptian television showed videotape of the cheering crowd but cut away as shots rang out. It did not show the attack. The next pictures showed Mubarak at the meeting hall, where supporters clapped and chanted: "Mubarak is the people's beloved! We salute you, Mubarak!"

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Updated 7:56 AM ET September 6, 1999 By ELIZABETH BRYANT
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990906/07/international-politics

CAIRO, Egypt, Sept. 6 An array of politicians, intellectuals and human rights activists have presented a petition to the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, calling for an overhaul in the country's political system, only weeks before Mubarak faces a public referendum for a fourth consecutive six-year term.

"We say it is impossible for the Egyptian society to develop under such a system, because now we are looking at a despotic royalty not a republic," said Salah Eissa, an independent member of parliament, during a Cairo press conference today.

The press conference was held jointly by human rights activists and opposition party members, who have presented the Mubarak government with five key demands, in what they call "the first step in the path to a radical political and constitutional reform."

The demands include ending an 18-year-old state of emergency; releasing political prisoners; free and independent elections; and complete freedom to operate newspapers, trade unions and to establish political parties.

Although these demands have been aired periodically over the years, "now the circle (for change) is wider than ever before," Eissa said.

Some 143 prominent Egyptians have signed onto the call for political change, the activists said today. Over the next weeks, they plan to fan out across the country to persuade hundreds of thousands of Egyptians to sign on as well, they said. The activists say they will hold a conference to assess their results on Sept. 22 only four days before Mubarak faces almost certain reelection by public referendum.

Earlier this year, Mubarak indicated that he had no major plans to liberalize the Egyptian political system in the coming years. In a June interview with The Washington Post, he said democracy should proceed "step by step."

But in a speech in Alexandria last month, Mubarak called on all elements of society to help develop Egypt. Recently, too, the president's political adviser Osama el-Baz, said "more doses of democracy" were necessary in Egypt.

Although some members of Egypt's opposition parties present today have endorsed another Mubarak term, they nonetheless condemned the referendum system.

"These demands are separate for the support or the withdrawal of support" for Mubarak, said Nasserist Party member Farouk Al-Ashry.

Magdy Hurour, deputy secretary general of the Labor Party, said the current political system prevented parties to vote their conscience. "For anyone to take a position, we must be free first," Hurour said.

He noted that two journalists from the Labor Party's Al-Shaab newspaper have recently be sentenced to prison, for libeling Egypt's deputy Prime Minister Youssef Walli.

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Filed at 2:29 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press, September 8, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Puerto-Rico-FALN.html

Background on the Puerto Rican independence group Armed Forces of National Liberation, or FALN:

Founded in 1974 by members of three earlier guerrilla groups, the FALN staged 130 bomb attacks on political and military targets in the United States from 1974 to 1983.

The FALN announced its existence in October 1974, claiming credit for the bombing a month earlier of Newark, N.J., police headquarters and City Hall. A Rand Corp. study said its first operations were the firebombings of five New York City banks in October 1974.

In December 1974, the FALN planted a bomb in New York City and directed police to its location. Police Officer Angel Poggi lost an eye and was permanently disabled when the device exploded.

On Jan. 11, 1975, a bomb went off in a Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, restaurant, killing two young independence activists, injuring 10 diners and killing a 6-year-old child. The FALN blamed the CIA for the bombing.

Less than two weeks later, a bomb went off at New York City's Fraunces Tavern, killing four people and wounding 60. Authorities blamed the FALN.

In October 1975 the FALN bombed targets in Chicago, New York and Washington; in March 1977 it exploded bombs near FBI offices in New York. In November 1979, it bombed military recruiting centers in Chicago, and in 1980 it briefly occupied the Jimmy Carter-Walter Mondale Chicago campaign headquarters.

A wave of arrests in the early 1980s effectively ended FALN activity.