Peter Cosgrove praised the Indonesian military's cooperation with the international force. UN officials say they still hope to secure East Timor and move to a more conventional peacekeeping operation within two months. But Indonesia's capability to destabilize the territory worries everyone. Aid workers in West Timor say pro-Jakarta militias are massing near the East Timor border. Although Jakarta has agreed to provide some aid agencies with access to the West Timor refugee camps, aid workers and Western diplomats say it has done little to disarm militias controlling the camps.
Aid workers say militias have been separating independence supporters from other refugees.
Militia leaders such as Eurico Guiterres, whose Aitarak militia has close ties to Kopassus, have threatened attacks on the Australian-led force. But there have also been efforts to build these leaders into legitimate political figures. Abilio Soares, Jakarta's appointed governor for East Timor, arranged for Guiterres to join a receiving line for Sadako Ogata, the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees, during her September 20 visit to camps in West Timor. As the cameras rolled, she shook hands with one of the chief instigators of the violence. Furious UN officials said they had no idea who she was meeting.