(29 Aug 2000) Indonesian/Nat
East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao has raised the possibility of cross-border strikes into Indonesia to defend his fledgling country against pro-Indonesian militias infiltrating from Indonesian West Timor.
In an interview with Newsweek magazine, Gusmao was quoted as saying "my opinion as a former guerrilla leader is this: if (the militias) come from West Timor to fight us in East Timor, then we should strike back and destroy them inside West Timor".
East Timor marks the first anniversary of its vote for independence from Indonesia this month.
But on the eve of its first anniversary of nationhood, one year after the August 30 vote and its bloody aftermath, the half-island territory braces itself for a new wave of violence.
Reports of West Timor-based militia crossing into East Timor have forced the United Nations peacekeepers to step up patrols along the border.
U-N East Timor administration head Sergio Vieira de Mello admits the armed militia are still a threat to the East Timorese.
But pro-Indonesian guerrilla leader Eurico Guterres claims his men won't disrupt any planned independence celebrations on the 30th and accuse the U-N for failing to reconciliate the two sides.
The mountainous 120-kilometer (75-mile) border make it impossible for the relatively small U-N peacekeeping force to monitor.
Recently U-N patrols have exchanged fire with suspected militia gangs caught on the wrong side of the border.
In separate incidents, two peacekeepers and several gang members were killed.
The recent escalation of tensions at the border triggered rumours of a new wave of violence ahead of the first anniversary for this nation-in-waiting
The United Nations, which is administering East Timor during its transition to independence, fears at least 150 armed militiamen now operate in the territory and are planning more havoc.
In an effort to increase security at the border, Australia sent four Blackhawk helicopters to East Timor earlier in August.
Now they are hoping to cooperate with the Indonesian military (T-N-I) on the other side of the border.
The United Nations Transitional Authority for East Timor, or UNTAET, believe the T-N-I have the ability to stop further cross-border raids.
Refugee camps in Indonesian controlled West Timor and where UNTAET has no jurisdiction are home to about 120-thousand East Timorese and are a breeding ground for the militias.
Thousands of East Timorese who had fled to the camps or were forced there by militias have now returned home.
But about 80-thousand remain in the makeshift settlements that the United Nations says are militias safe havens.
Many accuse sections of Indonesia's military, browbeaten by East Timor's loss, of arming and training gangs to destabilise the territory.
Indonesia's new democratic government has sought to mend relations with East Timor, but admits some rogue sections of its army might be behind the latest trouble.
East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence on the August 30th referendum last year incurred a heavy toll for the half island population.
Breaking away from Indonesia, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975, meant a backlash that left thousands fleeing the bloody violence.
The rampage that swept through East Timor were mainly attributed to pro-Indonesian militiamen led by this man, Eurico Guterres.
A year later, Guterres now claims that the media had exagerrated the militia's reputation and obscured their objectives.
He also claims that last year's referendum didn't prove the pro-Indonesians had lost the fight.
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