August 12, 2000
[Presenter] Sergio Vieira de Mello [head of UNTAET, UN Transitional Administration in East Timor] has admitted that there are organized armed groups in East Timor operating under a single command. He was speaking at Dili airport during the funeral ceremony for the Nepalese UN soldier killed yesterday in clashes with pro-Indonesia militias. Antonio Veladas reports:
[Reporter] [passage omitted on ceremony] Vieira de Mello says that the militias are no longer infiltrating East Timor, but have been in the territory for about 10 days.
[Mello] I have a clear idea of what is happening, and as I have just said, it seems that there are various groups, not very large in number, of militiamen who are very well trained and well coordinated - that is what concerns me - acting in the Bonaro, Covalima and perhaps even the Ainaro districts. I repeat, there are not many but they are well trained, very well coordinated, and they appear to have a single command structure. Our colleagues in the west and central sectors are also coordinating their actions and taking all the precautions to intercept these groups, especially those who killed the Nepalese soldier whose body has just left on a C-130 to Darwin.
[Reporter] There is a militia group settled in East Timor?
[Mello] Settled - I don't know. But some of them appear to have been in the territory for several days, possibly 10 days. Therefore we are no longer talking about infiltration across the international border, we are talking about groups operating with relative autonomy, stealing and killing cattle, stealing and eating the people's corn.
