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Foreign troops heading for East Timor

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 May 2006, 19:44 CDT

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Foreign troops could be in East Timor by late Thursday after the tiny nation asked for help from Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and Malaysia to quell deadly clashes between sacked military police and government troops.

Two Australian navy ships were already heading toward East Timor and Australia's deputy Defense chief was to visit the East Timorese capital, Dili, on Thursday to finalize details of the deployment.

"We could, if we choose to, have some elements of the Australian defense deployment (in Dili) as early as very late this afternoon or early this evening," Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson told Australian radio on Thursday.

"But that will basically be decided ... today," he said.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Australian embassy in Dili had reported gunfire and people fleeing the city on Thursday.

Downer said he hoped foreign troops would stabilize the country to allow the cash-strapped government to talk to rebel troops, who claim their dismissal was unfair.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, acting on behalf of East Timor's government, formally requested urgent U.N. Security Council approval of the offers of assistance.

But the council put off action for a few days after Russia, in a contentious closed-door session, argued the 15-nation body needed more information before it could vote, diplomats said.

"The failure to support the request of the government at this time is a pity," British Ambassador Emyr Jones Perry told Reuters. "We should have been stronger in our support for a country that is now in crisis."

Council members predicted action later this week on a resolution formally approving the offers of assistance.

DANGEROUS SITUATION

Australia has pre-deployed a battalion of between 1,000 and 1,300 troops. In Lisbon, the Portugal government said it would send 120 military police to help in the security effort.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said a detachment of troops was ready to deploy, but she was waiting for more details.

"It's very important not to walk into what is a factional dispute, in some respects, and be seen to be taking sides," Clark said on National Radio.

Five people were killed and hundreds fled their homes when the sacked East Timorese military policemen and government troops clashed in the streets of the capital Dili late last month. A sixth person was killed on Tuesday when the violence reignited.

"It is going to be dangerous, this is not like 1999. We are now in a situation where we have, of 1,400 soldiers in the East Timorese army, we have 600 who have left. They have trained, many of them are unhappy and many of them are armed," Nelson said.

Australia led a U.N.-backed intervention force to East Timor in 1999 to quell violence by pro-Indonesian militias after East Timorese voted for independence from Jakarta. An estimated 1,000 people died in the violence.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and in 1976 declared it an Indonesian province after centuries of Portuguese control.

U.N. peacekeepers left a year ago and the U.N. mission of 130 administrators, police and military advisers was scheduled to finish in East Timor on May 20, but its term was extended for a month after the recent riots.

"(The East Timorese) are absolutely petrified, scared and apprehensive in the extreme that there's going to be some sort of civil war," Australian Margaret Gray told radio after arriving in the northern city of Darwin from Dili.

Source: REUTERS

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