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Indonesian army to tighten security at Timor border

JAKARTA: Indonesia's military has pledged to tighten security at the border with East Timor after complaints by the United Nations of pro-Jakarta militia attacks, the official Antara news agency reported on Sunday.

"Because there have been complaints by the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), we will follow up the matter and tighten security at the border," Colonel Jurefar, West Timor military commander was quoted as saying on Saturday.

Head of UNTAET, Lieutenant-General Jaime de los Santos has complained to Indonesia's Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab that pro-Jakarta militias had infiltrated East Timor and attacked residents there, Antara said.

It said President Abdurrahman Wahid had instructed Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono to take stern action against the militias, also accused of attacking people in Kupang, capital of West Timor. Antara gave no further details.

U.N. peacekeepers in East Timor said early in March they had come under fire from anti-independence militias in four separate attacks near the border in the past 36 hours.

More than 250,000 East Timorese fled or were forced across the border during the September violence last year amid mass destruction and killings by militia groups after a landslide vote for independence.

The U.N. estimates 149,000 people have returned since October.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1975 and annexed it the following year in a moved never recognised by the United Nations.-Reuters