A day after a highly-publicised peace ceremony in Dili organised by the Indonesian armed forces commander, Gen Wiranto, many residents of the East Timor capital were claiming yesterday that it was little more than a public relations exercise to satisfy outraged world opinion in the wake of the slaughter of unarmed civilians last weekend.
The pro-Jakarta militias guilty of the killings were still being allowed by the Indonesian army to seal off roads and impose an effective curfew at night, according to people contacted in the region. A member of one pro-integration paramilitary group threatened journalists and ordered them back to Dili as they accompanied a government human rights commission team investigating the recent massacre in the town of Liquisa, according to Reuters. The 15,000 Indonesian troops who have kept a tight control of the former Portuguese colony since 1975 have yet to assert their authority against the rag-tag paramilitary groups armed with guns and machetes, who appeared to be ignoring their ceasefire commitment.
Jakarta newspapers reported yesterday that the death toll in last weekend's rampage by the militias in Dili was 30. The atmosphere of fear and intimidation has been heightened by the action of the militias in forcing the only daily newspaper, Suara Timor Timur, to stop publication. On Saturday night a truck carrying militias pulled up outside its offices and destroyed computers, printing equipment, furniture and files, leaving shards of glass over the white-tiled floor.
The staff had been threatened several times because of its reports on the activities of the pro-Jakarta militias. The publication of the daily, with a circulation of 7,000, challenged the "culture of lies, of always covering up things", said its managing editor, Mr Hugo da Costa, who denied that it reported news only from a pro-independence viewpoint. He hopes to resume publication in early May with help from the Asia Foundation and the Ford Foundation, but for now it is considered too dangerous.
On Wednesday, Gen Wiranto, in the presence of Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Belo, co-signed a ceasefire agreement with several local pro-integration figures, including the supreme militia commander, Mr Joao Tuares. The East Timor resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, who is under house arrest in Jakarta, signed a faxed copy.
The deal, under which the signatories promised to promote peace and reconciliation, was engineered on the eve of talks at the United Nations in New York involving the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, and his Portuguese counterpart, Mr Jaime Gama, on Jakarta's offer of autonomy for East Timor. An agreement would mean the rapid deployment of a large group of UN monitors to supervise a ballot on autonomy at a date to be announced.
Contingency planning includes peacekeeping, said Mr Juan Carlos Brandt, director of the UN Information Centre in Australia, yesterday. The UN "department of peacekeeping operations, working very closely with the department of political affairs, is in the process of making the necessary planning for when the mandate exists in terms of East Timor". Details of the autonomy agreement are likely to be announced today. The Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, said yesterday in Tokyo he hoped to see UN personnel in East Timor soon, possibly in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, in Jakarta, the Indonesian Justice Minister, Mr Muladi, said Indonesia would consider giving clemency to Mr Gusmao if the conflict were resolved. But no process for his release has been started as "we are not up to that yet", he said.