A dissident Indonesian academic has offered an explanation for East Timor's militia violence. Oil and other economic holdings in East Timor of the "Jakarta oligarchy" - including the family of the former dictator, Gen Suharto - explain why the referendum campaign is being undermined.
This is a conclusion of a new book, Is Oil Thicker than Blood? by Dr George Aditjondro, a critic of the former Suharto regime who fled Indonesia. He also says army officers have a plan to partition East Timor.
Ridiculing the idea that the militias were formed because of divisions between "rogue elements" in the army and Gen Wiranto, the army chief, Dr Aditjondro points the finger at the Jakarta oligarchy - a "closely-knit clique of former and active army generals and their families" who exploit the fears of a handful of East Timorese collaborationists.
Dr Aditjondro - a sociology lecturer at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales - says the current military commander of East Timor, Col Tono Suratman, "smacks of Suharto connections".
"His family are the co-owners of a pearling company, PT Kima Surya Lestari Mutiara, with Gen Prabowo Subianto's wife." Gen Prabowo is Gen Suharto's son-inlaw and was a rogue hardline officer opposing Gen Wiranto during last year's street protests that brought down President Suharto.
Dr Aditjondro's research into the economic interests of the "oligarchy" is supported in a recent investigative article in Time magazine. The former president Suharto has taken legal action against Time. It says the Suharto family controls "nearly 40 per cent of the entire province of East Timor".
The plan to repartition the island of Timor would, says Dr Aditjondro, leave an "oil poor" independent eastern East Timor and an "oil-rich" western area adjoining West Timor, already part of Indonesia.