PEACEWATCH.

Following an open debate in the Security Council on 11 September, Indonesian President B. J. Habibie accepted a UN-authorized peacekeeping force in East Timor. The Council on 15 September, adopted Resolution 1264 (1999), acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which authorized the establishment of a multinational force to restore peace and security in the territory, protect the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) and facilitate humanitarian operations. It also invited the Secretary-General to immediately plan and prepare for a United Nations transitional administration in East Timor, incorporating a peacekeeping operation, to be deployed in the implementation phase of the popular consultation. It condemned and called for the immediate end of all acts of violence, and demanded those responsible be brought to justice. Five days later, on 20 September, the first 2,300 troops of the International Force in East Timor (INTERFET), commanded by Major General Peter Cosgrove of Australia, reached Dili.

In a "popular consultation" of 30 August, the people of East Timor had voted by 78.5 per cent to 21.5 per cent against the special autonomy proposed by Indonesia, bringing East Timor, in the phrase of Mr. Kofi Annan on 3 September, to "the threshold of an orderly and peaceful transition" after nearly a quarter century of conflict.

But in the aftermath of the consultation, East Timorese militia, who opposed independence, led a ferocious campaign of violence, terrorizing the population and leading to a large-scale humanitarian tragedy. Within days, the entire urban population of the capital Dili had either fled or been forcibly relocated outside of East Timor. Similar situations existed in other regions, such as Aileu, Ermera and Maliana. (The Secretary-General has asked United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, to head an inquiry and report the results by 31 December.)

The Security Council sent a high-level mission. [*] headed by Ambassador Andjaba of Namibia, to Jakarta and Dili, which described the events following the referendum as representing, under the guise of a backlash against the vote for independence, "nothing less than a systematic implementation of a 'scorched earth' policy" under the direction of the Indonesian military. The mission noted the massive forced displacement of the population to West Timor as part of a systematic effort to permanently disperse these people all around Indonesia. Such widespread and flagrant violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, it concluded, could be "the first stages of a genocidal campaign" to stamp out the question of independence by force.

As the steadily security situation on the ground worsened, UNAMET was compelled to close all but one of its offices, evacuating on 10 September all staff except for 86 international personnel who remained with some 1,000 East Timorese who had taken refuge in the headquarters compound in Dili. The deteriorating humanitarian situation quickly developed into a grave food crisis after looting had depleted food stocks and humanitarian supplies. On 14 September, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN estimated the number of deaths at 7,000, in addition to over 200,000 who had fled or been forcibly displaced to camps in West Timor and other islands. Overall, some 350,000 people had been internally displaced. The crisis left more than a quarter of the population cut off from food supplies and drinking water and at risk of starvation.

On 16 September, arrangements were reached by United Nations agencies and partner organizations on a 30-day inter-agency humanitarian action plan. The very next day, they began humanitarian airdrops; the staging base was Darwin, Australia. Relief operations are estimated to cost $135.5 million in the next six months.

East Timor: Threshold of Transition Reattained

It cannot be ruled out that these are the first stages of a genocidal campaign to stamp out the East Timorese problem by force. ... The worst may be yet to come. Much of the population remains very vulnerable to starvation or attack ... This destruction has not been conducted by frustrated and insecure civilians. That is the myth which the Indonesian authorities are striving to convey. The evidence for a direct link between the militia and the military is beyond any dispute and has been overwhelmingly documented by UNAMET over the last four months. But the scale and thoroughness of the destruction of East Timor in the past week has demonstrated a new level of open participation of the military in the implementation of what was previously a more veiled operation. This open military role has now been legitimized by the invocation of martial law.