---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- ANTARA, October 11, 1999 E Timor-border clash: INTERFET ASKED TO CLARIFY IT Jakarta, Oct 11 (ANTARA)- The Indonesian military on Monday asked the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) to soon clarify the Sunday raid against an Indonesian border post in East Nusa Tenggara (West Timor), which killed a policement and wounded four others. "The incident can hopefully be clarified today. But, one obvious thing is that we are really sad and shocked that one of our personnel from Mobile Brigade unit was killed and four others were wounds," military spokesman, Mj. Gen. Sudrajat, said here. ANTARA, quoted withness, Amandus Simanjuntak, 50, and Lukas Moruk, 80, as saying that some 120 white Interfet soldiers crossed into Indonesian West Timor, about 200 meters from the natural border line of Mota Ain river, and attacked the Indonesian border post at about 12:30 p.m. The Interfet troops crossed the border with five Armoured Personnel carries (APCs), which stopped in line and dropped the troops. As dropping the combat troopers, they pointed their weapons to the border post, witnesses said. The troopers then spread out to various places around the post and continued firing without pause for 15 minutes. But the Indonesian personnel did not return fire, witnesses said. According to Sudrajat's explanation, the border post guards returned fire at the attackers who firstly showered them with bullets. Ari Sudibyo of the Mobile Brigade Unit of East Java base was killed, while his two colleagues, Sudarto and Agus Susanto, and a 43-year-old civilian, Alcino Barros, were injured. The wounded were being hospitalized in Atambua general hospital. According to Sudrajat in his live interview with RCTI, Interfet Commander Mj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove promised to conduct a joint investigation into the incident, along with Brig. Gen. Sitorus who represents the Indonesian military and police forces in the joint- security consultative group on East Timor. The investigation is expected to be able to clarify the intrusion incident, he said, adding that the National Defence Force (TNI) found that the Australia-let International force was dis-oriented at the border. "Interfet must also clarify about how it can judge in a 200-meter distance that those are militias of the Aitarak/BMP (armed wings of the pro-autonomy camp) or the Indonesian border post," he said. Asked about the causal factors behind the border dis-orientation, Sudrajat said it might be caused by inaccurate data that Interfet obtained from the Global Positioning System (GPS). The inaccuracy was revealed after Colonel Sigit, commander of the district military command (who is in charge of safeguarding the border line of East Timor and West Timor), showed the pole bordering West Timor and East Timor to Major Brian of Interfet, he said. Major Brian himself apologized after he revealed the pole bordering the two parts of Timor island, which was separated by the Dutch and Portuguese colonised this archipelago, he said. (T.NN-03/11/10/99 11:27/INT-TA/ri3/12:41/TB02) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 15 Oct 1999 jam 10:30:52 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
