By Mark Riley

Indonesia has ordered the West Timorese militia to surrender their arms or have them forcibly removed, as the Wahid Government moves to avert the threat of economic and military sanctions. The militia will be given three days from tomorrow to hand over their weapons before the Indonesian military and police conduct armed sweeps through villages and refugee camps near the East Timor border.

Indonesia has invited officers of the United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor (UNTAET) to observe the weapons round-up but not to play an active role. The plan was outlined by Indonesia's Chief Politics Minister, Mr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and Foreign Minister, Mr Alwi Shihab, to a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday night.

It follows extreme international pressure since militiamen, armed with machetes, hacked to death three UN workers and at least six civilians on September6 .

The United States Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, has threatened to block international loans and extend the US military blockade on Indonesia if the Government does not act decisively to smash the pro-Jakarta militia.

After the Security Council meeting, diplomats warned privately that this would be Indonesia's last chance before facing unilateral sanctions. The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, who attended the meeting, said Indonesia should disarm the militia and dismantle the refugee camps within three months. "And until that is done, their own reputation and their relationship with the world can become compromised."

Mr Yudhoyono outlined a plan to disarm the militia within weeks and said the Government would move swiftly to repatriate the estimated 120,000 East Timorese in refugee camps. However, Mr Yudhoyono and Mr Shihab failed to convince an increasingly sceptical Western bloc of Indonesia's true commitment when they again refused to support a council mission to Jakarta and Timor.

Mr Yudhoyono said after the meeting that Indonesians did not trust the UN and would see such a visit as "interfering in the domestic affairs of Indonesia". Mr Shihab conceded that Security Council members had shown a similar lack of trust in Indonesia and its repeated promises to crack down on the militia.

"There is a crisis of distrust and we have to solve this," Mr Shihab said. "We are not defying the UN. It is only the time. If this mission should be dispatched now it will be seen as an intervention, it will induce reaction and will incite emotions within the Indonesian community."

However, several Security Council members indicated that their patience had already worn thin and demanded to see concrete evidence that measures were being taken to muzzle the militia. The British representative on the Security Council, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said he welcomed the weapons round-up but would still continue to push for the council mission to visit Indonesia. Mr Yudhoyono suggested countries' ambassadors to Jakarta should go to West Timor as an interim measure and that Indonesia would invite the Security Council when the time was right.

Food stocks run out ahead of likely exodus

Humanitarian agencies are concerned that food and medicine may be fast running out in the West Timor refugee camps, and are stockpiling supplies for a possible mass relocation of many refugees back to East Timor. Yesterday, West Timor's deputy governor, Mr Johannes Pakepani, said provincial authorities would stop supplying rice to East Timorese refugees because stocks had run out. "We've already been giving them what rice stocks we have, which was enough for two weeks. So after September 21 it will stop," he said.

A spokesman for the Australian Red Cross, Mr Vedran Drakulic, said yesterday that aid workers had no way of assessing the plight of more than 120,000 refugees in the West Timor camps. "Until we can get unhindered access to the camps, we just don't know," he said. "This is a race against time. The longer they are without assistance, the more concerned we are."

A spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency in Canberra, Ms Ellen Hansen, said planning for a possible "mass influx" of refugees back into East Timor was in place. This included stockpiles of rice, beans, water and medical supplies for up to 100,000 refugees.