Word: militiaization
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...militias' reach extends beyond the camps. In Dili's giddy bustle, ragged storekeepers in plywood shanties offer cheap Indonesian cigarettes smuggled in from West Timor, often with militia help. Lieut. Peter Ireland, who commands a U.N. reconnaissance platoon, says his teams spy on border markets. In West Timor, pro-integrationists have interests in shops, gambling, construction, and mechanical repairs. Behind the imposing Atambua compound of former militia commander-in-chief Jo?o Tavares, cheering punters bet avidly on cockfights...
...Villagers from Kada, near the border town of Betun, claim that a bus driver working for militia leader Olivio Mendoza Moruk bashed two local boys last September. In response, angry villagers killed Moruk. Blaming the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Moruk's confederates then descended on the UNHCR compound in Atambua, butchering three workers; blood still stains the ransacked office. Igidio Manek, who seized a teenage girl at Suai as a war prize, continued his half-brother Olivio's businesses until he was arrested last month for corruption. "Militiamen are greedy criminals," says a senior Indonesian police officer...
...need support from Indonesia; we have the right to fight for our country," says East Timor's last governor, Abilio Soares. According to Indonesian police Brigadier-General Jaki Uly, the former militiamen still have guns. Some parade and drill with Indonesian civil defense units. "Refugees tell us of militia concentrations and training," says the U.N.'s Colonel Rob Holt. Mario Vieira, spokesman for the pro-integration political group Uni Timor Aswain (UNTAS), threatens economic turmoil for the new nation. "We will never give up," he says. Former commander-in-chief Jo?so Tavares believes the recent election has been a setback...
...Former militia company commanders are suspected of orchestrating border incursions. "They have strong feelings and minds about their homeland," says Eurico Guterres of these men, some his subordinates in the Aitarak militia. The ex-militiamen "feel abandoned," says UNTAS spokesman Vieira. "But they do these things as individuals, not as an organization." But former commander Nemecio de Carvalho claims that Guterres and Jo?o Tavares are keeping the hard-liners active, ordering and funding "clandestine activities, with support from the (Indonesian) military and retired generals." Both men deny involvement...
...Fearing prosecution if they return to East Timor, many former militia commanders are pressuring their followers to remain in the west until an amnesty agreement is reached. Some say likely East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has already promised such a deal. "Xanana told us many times that if he is President we will have amnesty," says Vieira. Jo?o Tavares says an amnesty is vital. "If this is not accepted, then the future will be one of prolonged conflict," he warns...