The detained East Timor resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, can use media broadcasts to campaign in the referendum on independence on August 30th, but will not be allowed to go to the troubled territory, Indonesian authorities said yesterday.
"When the campaign period arrives, we will give every opportunity for Xanana to campaign, through TV, through radio, through every means. But he does not need to go there," the Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, said in Jakarta.
His comments came as the military commander, Gen Wiranto, said Indonesia expected to maintain security in the territory for a further two to three months if the vote was for independence.
The UN's special envoy on the troubled territory, Mr Jamsheed Marker, yesterday met Indonesian President B.J. Habibie to discuss the post-ballot period.
"This will be critical . . . for two to three months I have to maintain security in East Timor where there is a possibility of protest by the pro-integration groups," Gen Wiranto said.
Indonesia's legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly, will have to pass a motion releasing East Timor from Indonesia if the vote favours independence, he added, suggesting such a motion would be debated in October and November.
The general repeated denials that Indonesian forces had supplied weapons to pro-Jakarta militias.
However, a Canadian delegation said yesterday that violence and intimidation by pro-Indonesian militias is continuing unabated. The team said it had evidence that Indonesian authorities were arming and supporting the militias to spread chaos if voters reject Jakarta's offer of autonomy in favour of independence.
The nine-member delegation from trade unions, women's and human rights groups, as well as a Canadian MP, spoke after a fiveday visit.
The accusations against Indonesian authorities echoed those levelled by the Carter Center, a private observer group, and the Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, a leading East Timorese rights group, on Wednesday. - (Reuters, AFP)
Indonesian soldiers massacred 24 young Christians sheltering from Muslim rioters in a church on the island of Ambon on Wednesday, the priest who buried the dead said yesterday, reports John Aglionby. Security forces also killed six people yesterday morning when they fired on 2,000 rioting Christians and Muslims in Ambon City. Later rescue workers recovered 14 bodies from buildings in the city burnt in unrest earlier in the week.
The death toll from the violence between the two communities in the past four days is at least 65 - making a total of more than 450 dead since the conflict erupted in January.
Reverend Lopulalan, the priest at the Moluccas Protestant church of Galala, said the attack two miles outside Ambon City came at about midday on Wednesday after a Muslim mob had "stoned the village for the previous hour".
"About 50 people had taken refuge in the church after being attacked," he said. "Then five military personnel posted in the village came down the street firing into the air. When they got to the church they started shooting volley after volley at the people in the churchyard and inside the church through the windows.
"Those who could, ran away. They could do nothing but watch as the soldiers went into the church, continuing to shoot. They eventually dragged 19 of the bodies out into the yard and burnt them."
Mr Lopulalan said some soldiers were from the elite strategic reserve command and the rest from the police paramilitary mobile brigade.
A police spokesman denied the attack had happened but admitted six people had died in clashes in the Galala area on Wednesday. He said the security situation was improving after the arrival of two battalions of strategic reserve reinforcements in Ambon yesterday.