Kenichi Okumura Yomiuri Shimbun

Newly independent East Timor's security concerns have shifted from external threats to internal disturbances caused by rising unemployment, according to Thai Royal Army Gen. Winai Pattiyakul, 55, who recently completed his one-year posting as commander of U.N. peacekeeping forces in East Timor.

In an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun in the Thai capital, Pattiyakul described the security situation in East Timor as peaceful, saying, "The threats have changed from external to internal ones, namely crime and law and order issues."

The general urged the international community to continue its involvement in developing East Timor, which achieved independence in May after a quarter-century of Indonesian rule. Pattiyakul said East Timor needed to establish its economic, legal and social infrastructure, for which financial assistance from the international community was vital.

With no reported cases of intrusions by Indonesia-based militias into East Timor, the general said external threats to the new nation had almost been removed.

Concerning the U.N. peacekeeping forces, which totaled 9,000 personnel at one stage, he said, "It's most likely that the U.N. military presence will finish its job in the middle of 2004 as scheduled."

Pattiyakul said East Timor had successfully begun to develop its own sovereign military forces. "Six hundred and fifty soldiers for the first batch finished their training last year and deployed on the east side of East Timor from July this year. They have started recruiting the second batch of another 650," he said.

The Thai general said he admired the "quality of people and equipment" of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces personnel who worked to repair badly damaged bridges and highways. Pattiyakul took up his East Timor post in September 2001 when he replaced then Lt. Gen. Boonsang Niempradit, also of the Thai Royal Army. As for the fact that two Thai generals had run the U.N. mission for two years in succession, Pattiyakul said, "I think the multinational environment is the greatest challenge for the person who commands...29 nations if you add military observers."

He also said it was beneficial for the Thai forces to have a Thai commander as Thai Royal Army soldiers also were serving as part of the U.N. mission. Pattiyakul finished his duties in East Timor at the end of August and returned to Thailand after reporting to U.N. headquarters in New York. As of Oct. 1, Pattiyakul was promoted from lieutenant general to general and also took up the post of special advisor of the Thai Royal Army's supreme command.

* Ben Terrall is coordinator of the San Francisco chapter of the East Timor Action Network.

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