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Belo flees as troops and militias continue terror

Driven by fear, killings and army gunfire, panic-stricken East Timorese were running for their lives yesterday as their homeland sank further into the abyss.

Bishop Carlos Belo, the Nobel Peace laureate, took an evacuation flight to Australia and pleaded for international action to stop the carnage.

The Indonesian government imposed martial law in the province, saying it would stem the violence unleashed by its own troops and their anti-independence militias proxies.

Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said martial law includes the authority for searches without warrants, a curfew to keep people off the streets and ``the shooting on sight of people who go against the curfew.''

Belo flew to Australia from the eastern town of Baucau, where he fled after militias aided by troops attacked his refugee-filled compound and burned his home in Dili on Monday.

Indonesian police and soldiers opened fire on the Bacau UN office, prompting the world body to order its evacuation.

A Security Council delegation was due to arrive in Jakarta, the national capital, on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to persuade President B.J. Habibie to rein in his military.

But foreign diplomats in the Indonesian capital said they doubted that the army -- which has grown increasingly assertive in recent months -- would heed any orders from the government.

Many of Indonesia's top generals are loathe to give up East Timor, whose people voted last week in a UN-supervised referendum to separate from Indonesia. The Indonesian army invaded the half-island in 1975 as it was gaining independence from Portugal. Many generals fear other restive provinces may be encouraged to break away if East Timor goes free.

In Dili, bands of pro-Indonesian militia set houses ablaze, fired rocket-propelled grenades and bazookas, and shouted through megaphones for those remaining in the city to get out.

Witnesses said both militiamen and Indonesian troops loaded people onto trucks and sent them to West Timor, an Indonesian province that shares the island with East Timor.

"I would not say the declaration of martial law has done anything to secure the situation," said a UN information officer in the organization's besieged compound in the provincial capital, Dili.

Other UN officers reported widespread looting and arson throughout the city. The downtown commercial section also appeared to have been torched.

More than 2,500 refugees and local workers were still holed up in the UN compound, seeking a safe haven.

The torching of 30 UN vehicles in Dili by army-backed militiamen and the attack on the organ-ization's offices in Baucau highlighted skepticism that martial law ordered by the government would have any effect.

Elsewhere, calls for immediate action to stem the terror and mass deportations intensified yesterday and the prospect of war crimes indictments was raised for the generals who are seen as orchestrating the violence.

"There is very clear evidence of collusion between elements of the security forces and the militias to deport East Timorese forcibly to West Timor and elsewhere," said Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Speaking in Darwin, Australia, Belo said his people "were unable to fight the waves of violence. The international community should act immediately to protect the people. We feel that we are no longer safe."

Belo expressed fears his country was being made "empty" as 100,000 East Timorese -- one eighth of the population -- were reported to be fleeing the burnings, shootings and killings.

The mayhem in East Timor brought increasingly strident threats of foreign military intervention.

President Bill Clinton spoke with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who has offered to send troops. Portugal, France, Australia and Britain have said they support a UN force. Australia, which is seen as leading the force, has already offered 2,000 troops.

But Indonesia's defense minister General Wiranto rejected yesterday the possibility of allowing armed peacekeepers into East Timor.

"Either Indonesia has to take care of the situation itself or allow the international community to come in," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said during a visit to Vietnam.

"We must deal with the acute situation as soon as possible," Finnish foreign minister Tarja Halonen said yesterday. "Any delay by the United Nations on taking a decision [to send troops] could result in the loss of more lives."

Finland currently holds the EU presidency.
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