The Indonesian military is "openly and clearly distributing guns in [the eastern towns of] Baucau, Laga and other places. They are turning Timorese against Timorese. It is like hell," the Nobel laureate, Bishop Carlos Ximines Belo, said yesterday. His comments came as 200 UN voter registration centres closed in advance of an August 30th "popular consultation" on autonomy/independence.
With 439,580 voters so far listed - 12,390 of them from the diaspora - registration has clearly been the success anti-independence militias have tried to prevent. Attacks by anti-independence militias in East Timor over the past six months have claimed 3,000 to 5,000 lives, according to "authoritative" Catholic Church sources quoted by the Washington-based Humanitarian Project on East Timor.
Until now the figure was thought to be no more than 1,000.
Mr Arnord Kohen, director of the Humanitarian Project and author of an unofficial biography of the bishop, said that Bishop Belo told him by phone yesterday
that in remote areas, Kopassus (special forces) and militias were still threatening people. The spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor (Unamet), Mr Hiro Ueki, reported two cases of harassment by pro-Indonesian militias on Thursday that left at least one Unamet officer injured.
At one registration post in Batugade, on the border of West Timor, a journalist yesterday witnessed 500 people claiming to be refugees arriving in Indonesian military trucks with brand new identification cards. They were sent back to get authentification documents, the journalist said. In Railuka, a rebel mountain hideout in Manatuto district, a rebel commander said that 80 of his men had been unable to register.
Mr Tom Hyland of the East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign said: "What a pity that the courage of the East Timorese people in braving intimidation to register has not been matched by Tony Blair and President Clinton who say they believe in democracy." Mr Hyland supports sending armed UN peacekeepers, a project under consideration at the UN, to help prevent expected heavy violence after the voting.
Trocaire yesterday warned that the distribution of guns signalled "a crisis point". Ms Fionnuala Gilsenan said: "If this is not acted upon it could be the prelude to a massive bloodbath."
--(Additional reporting by news agencies)