EAST TIMOR: UN TROOPS INVOLVED IN FIRE FIGHT

(26 Sep 2000) English/Nat

United Nations troops have been involved in a fire fight with West Timorese militias.

None of the Portuguese U-N force was injured.

It's not known if the militia took casualties.

The incident occurred on Saturday when a patrol led by Portuguese U-N forces, supported by East Timorese guides, were three kilometres from the village of Feriksare, near the town of Alas in the central sector of East Timor.

The guides apparently spotted militia nearby and the UN opened fire - feeling they were under direct threat.

The robust U-N response is part of a new policy of adopting what the Head of the U-N Mission, Sergio De Miello describes as "repressive rather than persuasive" tactics to smoke out and disarm militias.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I do not believe that militia will voluntarily surrender their weapons. And if they did they'd probably surrender the old rotten ones and kept the modern ones. Therefore what happened yesterday did not come as a surprise, it was pretty pathetic but not a surprise. What I'm interested in is as of this morning, whether the repressive face, which is the one I believe can work, will be more effective. And for that we need to wait a few days, we'll be briefing the security council on Friday afternoon, by then we should have a clearer idea, whether repression has been more effective than persuasion."
SUPER CAPTION: Sergio de Miello, Head of the UN Mission

The U-N has previously come in for criticism for being too soft on militia activity.

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