East Timor Peace Still a Distant Prospect

By Tony Karon Sunday, Sept. 12, 1999
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It's a little early for sighs of relief over the fate of East Timor. Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas met with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York Monday to negotiate the terms of a peacekeeping mission to East Timor. But although President B. J. Habibie caved in under mounting international pressure Sunday and accepted the principle of a peacekeeping mission, perils aplenty await both the Timorese and their prospective liberators. For one thing, nobody knows quite who is in charge in Jakarta these days. That the president's announcement was immediately endorsed by the all-powerful military is certainly encouraging, but that same military has repeatedly vowed to protect the Timorese from the very violence in which it turns out to have been an active participant. And, wouldnt you know it, Indonesias generals insist they wont accept Australians in the peacekeeping mission -- Australia has been tapped to lead any U.N.-authorized force. "Indonesias strategy will be to stall and confuse the issue as much as possible," says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. "Annan will be pushing for an unconditional acceptance of a peacekeeping force within days."

The key question may be the intentions of the Indonesian military inside East Timor. Habibie's announcement stressed that Indonesia plans to keep its troops there after peacekeepers arrive, even though the army's top commanders acknowledge that they've lost control of rogue elements in their ranks. Presumably those elements aren't going to turn into Boy Scouts when a battalion of Australian troops comes marching down the road. So this particular "peacekeeping" operation may end up looking more like a counterinsurgency campaign. Joining the Aussies will be British Gurkhas and troops from Malaysia, New Zealand, France, Thailand, the Philippines and Canada. The U.S. is expected to provide a small contingent in logistical rather than combat roles. But first the international community may have to hold Indonesia to its word.