Though unable to campaign properly because of continuing intimidation, East Timor's pro-independence group yesterday refused to call for a postponement of Monday's ballot on autonomy/independence, saying "it would mean more killings".
With violence continuing against the remarkably restrained pro-independence side, new tension came into the campaign as hundreds of pro-Indonesian supporters rallied in front of the governor's residence.
Posters of Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, who may be Indonesia's next president, appeared for the first time. They played on her image and sadness at the idea of losing the Timorese.
Meanwhile, independence supporters were preparing for a large rally this morning. The UN mission in East Timor (UNAMET), confirming reports that 23 Indonesian observer groups had been refused accreditation, was short on detail. Reports said they were from government-sponsored and Muslim organisations dedicated to East Timor's integration with Indonesia.
Doubts about their neutrality have deepened with a report in yesterday's Jakarta daily, Kompas, that the 340 observers were students from "social organisations" who came to Dili on a naval ship.
At a hastily called press briefing outside the headquarters of the National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT), Mr David Ximenes called on Indonesia to fulfil its obligation under the UN agreement it signed with Portugal on May 5th to provide security for Monday's "popular consultation".
A busload of Aitarak (Thorn) anti-independence militia members, some of them on the roof, passed by the headquarters just before the briefing.
At least two army trucks with heavily armed troops came by later. Troops are supposed to be in barracks under the May 5th agreement.
Observers from the Carter Centre said yesterday there were positive signs that the Indonesian police had begun to establish security, but they added that there were accounts of violence that again implicated the military in support of pro-integration militias.
However, the Committee for a Free and Fair Ballot, a Timorese observer group formed by the Yayasan HAK human rights organisation, was unequivocal. "The militias, the Indonesian military and the police are still committing acts of terror and intimidation," it said.
"Without firm action against the perpetrators of violations and a thoroughgoing improvement in the security situation, the East Timorese will be forced to participate in a ballot which is not free and not fair."
The Carter Centre said pro-Indonesian groups were distributing rice and building materials to villages to win support. While the CNRT had opened offices in several districts it had been unable to do so in others because of attacks, observers say. East Timor now has 1,400 UNAMET-accredited observers.
UNAMET tends to play down the violence, saying at its briefing yesterday that there had been "no serious incidents" in recent days. Mr David Wimhurst, the spokesman, said it was "quite good" that with 438,000 voters registered there had been only 147 challenges or appeals.
The Carter observers said they had "found no evidence to substantiate pro-integration allegations of attacks and intimidation" by the CNRT and student organisations. The "non-confrontational posture of FALINTIL (the resistance army) remains unchanged". Armed FALINTIL guerrillas are cantoned in four areas, although militias have not reciprocated.
The Carter observers said the plight of internally displaced persons (IDPs) - jargon for peasants who have been driven from their homes to prevent them participating in the process - continues to worsen in some places.
Meanwhile, Suara Timor Timur, the local pro-autonomy daily, appeared to answer US Congressman Tom Harkin, who visited last Saturday and called for armed UN peacekeepers. It said both sides should cool it to head off such a prospect.