The New York Times

Friday, July 2, 1999

UN Staff Intimidated in E. Timor

By The Associated Press

DILI, Indonesia (AP) -- After being threatened by militiamen, six members of a United Nations mission

were evacuated from a town in East Timor, a U.N. spokesman said today.

It was the third time this week that U.N. officials

have been forced out of towns outside of Dili, the territorial capital, as tensions rise before a U.N.-supervised independence ballot in August.

Spokesman Yasuhiro Ueki said the six left Liquica on Thursday night for the safety of Dili, about 25 miles

to the west.

Liquica is a stronghold of anti-independence sentiment and the site of atrocities against civilians in recent months.

On Tuesday, one U.N. official was injured along with

at least seven East Timorese after a rock-throwing mob attacked a U.N. office in Maliana, in the western part

of the territory.

On Wednesday seven electoral staff were evacuated from Viqueque, in the east, after dozens of anti-independence militiamen protested outside their office and cut off its power and telephone lines.

East Timor has been wracked by violence since Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975.

The vote will give East Timorese the opportunity to choose whether to remain part of Indonesia as an autonomous region or break away altogether.

The United Nations originally scheduled the ballot for Aug. 8 but postponed it because of security fears and logistical problems.

On Thursday U.N. envoy Jamsheed Marker said the vote would go ahead on either Aug. 21 or 22 and the world

body would not be intimidated by groups that he described as ``hoods and hoodlums.''

In Jakarta today, pro-independence leaders Jose Alexandre ``Xanana'' Gusmao and visiting Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta accused the Indonesian military of helping anti-independence militias derail voting preparations.

Both said the Indonesian government must provide security or accept the deployment of an ``armed intervention force'' from abroad.

Indonesia signed a U.N.-brokered agreement in New York

on May 5 promising, among other things, to guarantee security in the lead-up to the referendum.

About 600 U.N. electoral and other officials are to be stationed in East Timor before the ballot. Some 274 unarmed international police advisers are to help Indonesian security forces maintain law and order.

Horta urged the Indonesian government to release Gusmao from house arrest in Jakarta and allow him to campaign freely in East Timor.

``How can the vote be fair and free when leaders like Xanana Gusmao, myself, and our colleagues are not allowed to be in East Timor,'' Horta asked. ``It would be like holding free elections in South Africa with Nelson Mandela still in jail.''

Gusmao was jailed in 1992 and has been under house arrest since March. Horta has lived in exile since 1975. Neither man has been allowed to visit East Timor in advance of the vote.

Marker also told reporters in Australia today that Gusmao should be released and allowed to take part in the ballot.

``We think it is important that Xanana be allowed to return to East Timor and allowed to work there,'' he said.