>from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Cohen -Korea Timor Jakarta Philippines et al
> ("From the Philippines, Mr Cohen will travel to Singapore,
>Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea and Japan for meetings on a wide
>range of bilateral and regional security issues, including progress
>in relations between longtime enemies North and South Korea."
>
>JC..This suggests that Cohen is a man of peace, spreading aid and
>comfort to the world. Well, we know what he is -something like a CIA
>rep tightening the US screws on US client states.
> Koreas will never be as one and 'go forward', until the 37000 SAS
>are returned to Washington.
> Under UN rules the US has promised not to use force to gain free
>land and resources. Nothing has changed there. Ownership of the
>victims media, politicians, corporations and particularly the defence
>chiefs can always be arranged -after training at the School of
>Assassins -for all of the above sites plus Balkans, Sth America and
>Africa. The UN is but a means to imperialist ends
> The honeyed words and suggestions to Indonesia imply that Wahid
>should stop the killing in West Timor/ACEH -meaning tbat the great
>"Democracy" has said something for world press but that Wahid should
>ignore the words and continue with the plans set in concrete in 1975.
>
> from -Sydney Morning Herald ... September 11, 2000
>
>"West Timor officials fear crime wave"
>By Lindsay Murdoch in Kupang and Mark Dodd in Dili
>----------------------------------------------------------
>
>Authorities in the West Timorese capital of Kupang fear last
>week's evacuation of hundreds of United Nations staff and the halting
>of UN food supplies to more than 100,000 Timorese refugees will
>trigger a crime wave.
>
>Officials said they believed local West Timorese would be the main
>targets of mobs of angry East Timorese refugees from the squalid
>border camps, where food will run out within weeks.
>
>"West Timor is a time bomb," one of the last UN officials to leave
>the province said.
>
>"The conditions are getting worse and worse," Mr Jake Morland, of the
>United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said from Bali, where
>he was evacuated after pro-Jakarta militias killed three UNHCR
>workers.
>
>"They are running out of food. We gave the last food supplies to them
>last month so if the [Indonesian] Government does not accept the
>moral responsibility to take over the situation, we will see a
>security meltdown."
>Asked if the refugees had enough food for a month, he said: "It will
>be shorter than that."
>
>West Timor's chief of police, Brigadier-General John Lalo, pleaded
>for the return of UN and other international agencies.
>
>"Where will the refugees get food? The people will most likely turn
>to theft and they will most likely start stealing from their
>neighbours," he said. "We desperately need the continuing help of the
>international community."
>
>But the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, outraged at the killing
>of UN staff, has told President Abdurrahman Wahid that the UN will
>not return to West Timor until Jakarta can guarantee foreigners will
>be protected.
>
>"The safety of the UN can be guaranteed only so far," General Lalo
>said. "Don't forget that many of these people are criminals. They do
>their work in the middle of the night. We can't watch them all the
>time."
>
>General Lalo said the militia and their families, facing a six-
>month deadline imposed by Jakarta for the camps to be closed, see
>themselves being cheated out of their homeland. He said they
>represent the 21per cent who voted for East Timor to stay Indonesian
>last year.
>
>"They think that because 21per cent of the people voted to remain
>part of Indonesia that they should be given 21per cent of the
>territory," General Lalo said.
>
>In Dili, East Timor, the UNHCR repeated demands for Jakarta
>immediately to disarm all paramilitary groups in West Timor as a
>precondition for the resumption of humanitarian aid.
>
>Yesterday a senior UNHCR official in Dili warned that the arrest of
>only 15 militia suspects could provoke more bloody unrest in the West
>Timor district capital of Atambua.
>
>"We require a more comprehensive plan of action by the
>Indonesian authorities. We are asking Indonesia that completely
>disarms and disbands all militia immediately. We require more than 15
>arrests," Ms Ellen Hanson said. "That is insufficient and increases
>the danger for UNHCR staff going back in."
>
>The UNHCR also expressed increasing concern for East Timorese
>refugees amid unconfirmed reports of continuing militia violence in
>the camps, but stepped back from an earlier report that refugees had
>been killed on Tuesday in Betun district.
>
>"That remains very unconfirmed. I believe the Indonesians have issued
>a denial but confirmed 11 bodies were found there," Ms Hanson said.
>
>She queried reports by the Australian Foreign Minister linking the
>militia leader Eurico Guterres to last Wednesday's rioting in
>Atambua.
>
>"I'm not sure where Mr Downer got that information. I've not heard
>that. I do not think anybody has got the names of the perpetrators.
>Did it come from Australian intelligence? He seems adamant Guterres
>was involved, but that is something UNHCR is unaware of. There was
>nobody left alive who saw directly what happened. We're in an
>absolute black hole about what's happening in West Timor.''
>
>Refugees plead for return of aid workers as food shortages
>bite Kupang: With little medicine and food fast running out, East
>Timorese refugees in squalid camps in Indonesian West Timor pleaded
>yesterday for the return of international aid workers.
>
>About 400 United Nations officials and humanitarian workers fled West
>Timor last Thursday after three of their foreign colleagues and three
>civilians were slaughtered in a rampage by pro-Jakarta militia a day
>earlier. The evacuation meant cutting off food, medical and other aid
>to about 90,000 refugees.
>
>"We need aid," said Natalia Maria da Costa, cradling her 18-month-old
>baby in the hot, dusty Tuapukan camp on the outskirts of the regional
>capital, Kupang. "The most important thing is food for the children."
>She said most food supplies would run out in about three days and a
>promise of rice from the Government was yet to materialise.
>
>On Friday the Indonesian Vice-President, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri,
>said she would soon send 100 tonnes of rice to the region and local
>officials in Kupang said they had enough food for the next six weeks.
>
>Other refugees said they were also facing an acute shortage of
>medical supplies after a medical clinic closed.
>
>About 250,000 refugees fled from East Timor to the camps in the west
>a year ago after pro-Indonesia militiamen went on a rampage,
>following East Timor's vote for independence. Two-thirds of the
>original refugees have since returned to East Timor. Others remain,
>either wanting to stay or complaining that militia gangs will kill
>them if they try to leave.
>
> *********
>
> from -Sydney Morning Herald ... September 11, 2000
>
>"Thousands flee surge in violence" By Agence France-Presse,
>Associated Press -----------------------------------------------
>
>Jakarta: Thousands of people in ACEH have fled unrest in their
>villages after at least 12 people were killed in the contested
>northern province.
>
>At least 1,000 people from the Bandar sub-district of Central Aceh
>fled to Takengon, the main district town, and crowded the local
>parliament building, the Serambi daily newspaper said.
>
>"They are fleeing because of the increasingly tense security
>situation that followed the shootings and torching of houses by
>unidentified groups in the area," the newspaper quoted the district
>government spokesman, Mr Suriadi, as saying.
>
>The refugees said that on Thursday and Friday 28 houses had been
>torched by armed men in two sub-districts.
>
>Serambi also said that public transport from North Aceh to Takengon
>had been halted after three policemen were killed in an ambush in Wih
>Kenis on Friday.
>
>Earlier that day, Superintendent Abadan Bangko, chief of North Aceh
>police, said 14 soldiers and policemen had been wounded in five
>separate clashes with the rebels.
>
>"They launched grenade attacks against two military and police posts
>and ambushed truckloads of security forces," he said. "Fortunately,
>none of our troops were killed."
>
>However, Mr Abu Sofyan Daud, a rebel leader in northern Aceh, said
>six civilians died and 11 other were captured by Indonesian security
>forces during Friday's fighting.
>
>Over the weekend police found the bodies of three civilians,
>including a village chief, who had been abducted by gunmen in Central
>Aceh. The deaths brought to 87 the number of people killed in Aceh
>since a truce went into effect on June2.
>
>In West Aceh, some 3,000 people from six villages in the Krueng
>Sabe sub-district had set up temporary camps in Keude Krueng Sabe
>village after intensive patrols in their areas by security forces,
>Serambi said.
>
>The West Aceh rebel commander, Mr Abu Arafah, said that if the armed
>forces did not leave the area of Krueng Sabe within three days "we
>will attack and burn their posts in our territory".
>
>Both sides agreed last week to extend the so-called "humanitarian
>pause" for an unspecified period, but Jakarta says it will not extend
>it beyond December because it has been used by the rebels to
>strengthen their forces.
>
> **********
>
> from -Sydney Morning Herald ... September 11, 2000
>
>"International goodwill at risk, US warns Indonesia" By Reuters,
>Associated Press ----------------------------------------------------
>
>Washington: The United States Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen,
>would carry "a strong message" from President Bill Clinton to
>Indonesia on an upcoming Asian trip that Jakarta must control its
>military and end violence in Timor, the Pentagon said at the weekend.
>
>Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council announced it would
>send a mission to Indonesia and East Timor after adopting a
>resolution at the weekend insisting that the pro-Jakarta militias be
>immediately disarmed and disbanded.
>
>The resolution, adopted unanimously, condemned Wednesday's attacks on
>the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and expressed
>outrage at reports of further attacks on civilians.
>
>Shortly before the vote, the US Ambassador to the UN, Mr Richard
>Holbrooke, said that elements within the Indonesian military were
>"directly or indirectly responsible for these outrageous" acts.
>
>Relief staff have been evacuated from West Timor after a militia-led
>mob stormed UN offices on Wednesday in Atambua, near the border with
>East Timor, killing three foreign aid workers and at least three
>Timorese aid workers. About 20 people are feared dead after further
>violence near the town of Betun, south of Atambua.
>
>A senior Defence Department official said Mr Cohen planned to meet
>President Abdurrahman Wahid and other officials during a September
>17-18 visit and would make clear that Jakarta risked continued
>security isolation from Washington unless changes were made.
>
>"Secretary Cohen has been directed by President Clinton to raise
>our concerns about the lack of security in both West and East Timor,"
>the official said.
>
>"He will take a strong message to the leaders of Indonesia:
>Indonesia's failure to protect an American citizen and other
>international aid workers - and more general failure of the
>Indonesian Army to provide security for the international relief
>operations - threaten to destroy international goodwill towards
>Indonesia at a time when it needs it the most."
>
>Mr Cohen had also asked to meet the Indonesian Defence Minister, Dr
>Juwono Sudarsono.
>
>The defence official noted that the US, under direction from an
>angry Congress, had suspended military-to-military ties with
>Indonesia last September because of violence there and had no plans
>to resume such relations.
>
>But he made it clear the Pentagon would prefer to have close military
>ties with predominantly Muslim Indonesia, one of the world's most
>heavily populated countries.
>
>Mr Cohen will leave Washington on Wednesday and go first to Manila.
>
>>From the Philippines, he will travel to Singapore, Indonesia,
>Thailand, South Korea and Japan for meetings on a wide range of
>bilateral and regional security issues, including progress in
>relations between longtime enemies North and South Korea.
>
> *******
>
> Philippines - Via -Sydney Morning Herald ... September 11, 2000
>
>"Freed hostages brand captors 'bandits'" By Alex Spillius in
>Zamboanga The Daily Telegraph, Agence France Presse, Reuters --------
>----------------------------------------------
>
>Four Western tourists held for more than four months by Muslim rebels
>in a southern Philippine jungle were freed at the weekend, and
>immediately branded their captors "criminals" hiding under the holy
>mantle of Islam.
>
>The four men were the last Westerners among 10 hostages seized on
>April 23 by the Abu Sayyaf guerilla group, which has reportedly
>received up to $US25 million ($44 million) in ransom from Libya to
>secure the tourists' release.
>
>The group was snatched from a Malaysian resort and taken on a two-day
>boat journey to the Philippine island of Jolo, where the Abu Sayyaf
>claims to be fighting an Islamic separatist war against the
>predominantly Catholic Philippine Government.
>
>But one of the hostages released on Saturday said the Abu Sayyaf
>were nothing but "bandits". So intense is the rivalry for the profit
>from kidnappings in the southern Philippines that a bodyguard and a
>local villager died when a rival guerilla faction ambushed the convoy
>of cross-country vehicles going to collect the hostages on Saturday
>afternoon.
>
>With gunfire booming through the forest and their road exit blocked
>by the fighting, the hostages had to wait a further two hours before
>they could start the journey to Zamboanga, the nearest city.
>Two French journalists seized later while reporting the tourists'
>plight, 16 Filipinos and an American are still being held.
>
>A freed Finnish engineer, Mr Risto Vahanen said: "Mujib and Robot
>are nothing but bandits," referring to the rebel leaders Galib
>Andang, alias Commander Robot, and Mujib Susukan.
>The world was under the impression "that the Abu Sayyaf was fighting
>for the values, really the idea itself, of Islam. But the whole truth
>about it is just robbery," he said.
>The gunmen were "using Islam as an excuse to win the sympathy for
>themselves among the local Muslim community", he said.
>
>He also fired a parting shot at the Philippine Government, saying the
>only way to stop the banditry was to develop economically the
>southern islands, which are populated by poor, minority Muslim
>communities.
>
>Mr Vahanen and a fellow Finn, Mr Seppo Franti, a German, Mr Marc
>Wallert, and a Frenchman, Mr Stephane Loisy, were flown to the
>central Philippines city of Cebu late on Saturday.
>
>They were due to be flown to Libya to meet Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
>But Mr Franti said: "I don't like that idea that I have to become
>this kind of clown. I want to go home directly."
>
>He said he did not think he owed any great debt to Tripoli.
>"Libya will get what it wants out of this, so I don't know if we give
>them any particular thanks."
>
>Libya has mediated for the release of the European hostages from the
>Abu Sayyaf, offering "development aid". However, there are no
>guarantees the money will not be used to buy more weapons.
>
>Mr Franti expressed impatience to return home, saying: "I have lost
>half a year in that hell and in constant fear of death."
>He said suicide was constantly on the captives' minds.
>
>Mr Wallert, whose mother and father were released earlier, said:
>"Thank you, thank you very much to everyone who cared to get us out
>of there. We are so relieved I cannot describe it."
>
>All were able to speak to their family on mobile phones provided
>by diplomats. " JC
>
>
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