East Timor yesterday slipped into violent chaos after the United Nations declared the territory had voted overwhelmingly to throw off Indonesian rule.
Within hours of the UN announcement, anti-independence militias took to the streets, resuming a campaign of terror which Indonesia's security forces have done almost nothing to stop.
UN sources evacuated its staff from the towns of Los Palos and Same where pro-Jakarta mobs went on a rampage, firing guns.
PHOTO: REUTERS
A US man was shot in the stomach in Liquica, some 30 km west of the East Timorese capital, Dili, and was flown out to a hospital in Australia. He is a UN civilian police adviser.
A UN official said there had been a lot of killing in Maliana, a known stronghold of pro-Indonesia militias on the border with West Timor.
Earlier, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in New York that 78.5 percent of East Timor's more than 450,000 voters had opted for independence in Monday's referendum.
PHOTO: REUTERS
But world applause at the result soon turned to dismay as security unravelled, fuelling fears of civil war.
The United States yesterday warned of disaster if Indonesia failed to ensure security during the transition to independence.
"Indonesia has continuing obligations and must live up to them. To do otherwise risks disaster and will have lasting effects on Indonesia's status in the international community," US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in a statement.
"It is now time for cooperation and conciliation, not chaos and bloodshed," she said.
Smoke from what appeared to be several burning houses could be seen rising from a pro-independence neighborhood in Dili.
In one hotel, where UN officials and journalists are based, militiamen fired shots, aiming at people who were conducting satellite television transmissions from the hotel roof.
Thousands have fled the capital for the surrounding hills, fearing a major outbreak of violence. Many Indonesian and foreign journalists have already left the territory. Thousands of refugees swamped police stations in Dili seeking a way out.
Among those who left was militia leader Eurico Guterres who flew to the holiday island of Bali. He denied he was quitting East Timor, vowing to remain "until the last drop of my blood".
Indonesian President B.J. Habibie, who in January reversed his predecessor's policy and offered East Timor independence, promised to honor his commitment and called for calm.
Indonesian State Secretary Muladi said the government would send a team of senior ministers, including military chief General Wiranto, to East Timor today to support Habibie's stand.
"Wiranto will meet some police chiefs there and also with the militia," Muladi said.
Jailed rebel leader Xanana Gusmao, expected to become East Timor's first leader, called for an international peacekeeping force to go into the territory, much of which is under near mob-rule by militias opposed to independence.
"We foresee a new genocide in East Timor," Gusmao said in a statement. "We foresee total destruction in a desperate and last attempt by the Indonesian generals and politicians maybe as well to deny the people of East Timor their freedom."
Indonesia said it expected to free Gusmao on Wednesday -- a week earlier than originally scheduled -- as part of the "overall solution" to the East Timor problem.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, whose country was one of the few to ever recognize Indonesian rule in East Timor, yesterday said his government was working on a proposal to send a small peacekeeping force there if requested."We won't let East Timor down," he said.
The transfer of power will only formally be complete when Indonesia's top law-making body meets in October and repeals the 1976 law that made the territory Indonesia's 27th province. Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975.
Many Indonesian politicians, including the country's possible next president Megawati Sukarnoputri, are unhappy with the prospect of independence. But leaders of all the main parties have undertaken to respect the decision.
Most unhappy is the military, worried that independence in East Timor will encourage rebel movements elsewhere in the archipelago of 17,000 islands. The nation has already been strained by prolonged political and economic crisis.
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