EAST TIMOR: UN PEACEKEEPING MISSION LATEST

(24 Sep 1999) Natural Sound The commander of the multinational peacekeeping force in East Timor says his soldiers will shoot to kill if they catch anyone pointing a weapon at them. Gunfire crackled across East Timor's chaotic capital Dili on Thursday, sending civilians scrambling for shelter and peacekeepers for their rifles in what was seen as a test of multinational authority in the province. Peacekeeping troops were back on the streets of Dili early on Friday morning. The gunfire on Thursday demonstrated how jittery the multinational troops are as they face the prospect of deadly confrontations with anti-independence militias. Three truckloads of Indonesian soldiers, apparently resentful at losing East Timor in a referendum on independence, unleashed bursts of automatic fire as they drove through the Australian and British-controlled sectors of Dili. No one was hurt, and the soldiers were not caught. Though the shooting was not an attack, it prompted the commander of the peace mission, Major General Peter Cosgrove, to warn that his men would use "lethal force" against anyone who even pointed a weapon at them. The Indonesian army, which invaded East Timor in 1975 after Portugal abandoned its former colony, is now evacuating and handing control over to the multinational force. The peacekeepers began entering East Timor this week, with about 3-thousand soldiers on the ground as of midday on Thursday and 4-thousand-500 yet to come. Cosgrove warned the militias against provocation. He said he would try to speed up deployment of troops still at the staging point in Darwin, Australia. Cosgrove has admitted that he does not have enough troops to secure all residential areas of the capital. Brigadier David Richards, commander of the British contingent, said the men who fired their weapons in the air wanted to test the peacekeepers' response. He said they also wanted to create fear and show that the peacekeepers have less control over the city than the Indonesians did. In Jakarta, the Indonesian Justice Minister Muladi announced on Thursday that martial law had been revoked in East Timor and the responsibility for security would be handed over to the multinational force. The government had imposed martial law on September 7th after the rampage began. Cosgrove said he had reports that militias who wrought havoc on East Timor were massing across the border in the Indonesian province of West Timor. He said he is closely monitoring those groups, but his troops have no authority to operate in West Timor. U-N personnel took a two-hour helicopter tour on Thursday of the towns of Ainaro, Same, Suai, Ermera, Liquica and Maliana, and found them almost completely deserted and half destroyed. More helicopter tours of the province are planned for Friday. Between 190-thousand and 300-thousand people fled into the mountains and other areas during the violence in East Timor following the independence vote. U-N workers warned on Thursday that the international community has only a few weeks to get food to starving refugees before the rains ground flights and bog down roads. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...