In spite of intense military and political pressure in Jakarta to exclude Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Portugal from an international force for East Timor, Indonesia's Foreign Minister came to the United Nations yesterday saying his government would impose no conditions.
"It is all up to the United Nations to determine the composition of the force," Mr Ali Alatas said before joining the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, for talks on the deployment of the force.
Mr Annan said he was determined that a force should enter East Timor as quickly as possible and without any conditions but it would be impossible for it do so within 24 hours.
Asked if the force would have overall command in the territory, where the Indonesian army is known to support rampaging gangs, Mr Alatas said: "I assume they [the force] will take responsibility for the security situation."
Earlier the head of the United Nations mission in East Timor said international forces needed to arrive in the territory very quickly if a major humanitarian tragedy was to be averted.
Mr Ian Martin, a former secretary general of Amnesty International, told the BBC from the devastated East Timor capital Dili:
"It is critical that that negotiation does not result in any further delay. Those international forces have to be on the ground very quickly indeed if a major humanitarian tragedy can now be averted or at least very rapidly mitigated."
Mr Martin said food supplies were quickly being exhausted. "It is impossible to exaggerate how urgent it is that food is got to those who are in the hills," he said.
In Jakarta, the chairman of Indonesia's ruling Golkar party had called for the exclusion of the four "non-Asian" countries.
Military and parliamentary opposition to Australia's involvement came as protesters in Indonesia's second city, Surabaya, stormed and ransacked the Australian consulate.
The military spokesman, Maj Gen Sudradjat, said Indonesia's armed forces, which back anti-independence militias bent on `political cleansing' in East Timor, would not accept Australians as UN peacekeepers.
A spokesman for the Government said that if Ireland was asked by the UN to contribute to the peacekeeping force for East Timor it would "give a positive response", adding it would be "highly unusual" for the Government to offer troops until a request was made.
The Government is still examining whether it can invoke the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in order to force the Security Council to intervene without reference to the wishes of the Indonesian government. However, the spokesman said the initiative "has to an extent been overtaken by events". Mr Tom Hyland, of the Ireland East Timor Solidarity Campaign, said last night that he feared that "a bloodbath" was in progress as the Security Council discussed the composition and mandate of the UN force. - (Additional reporting by news agencies)
Liam Phelan adds from Darwin: Following an agreement with the Indonesian military, UNAMET began evacuating most of its remaining staff and over 1,000 refugees from Dili to Darwin early this morning (Irish time). The exhausted and frightened refugees began arriving at Darwin airport after 9 a.m. (local time) in an operation which is expected to continue all day.
UNAMET chief of mission Ian Martin was also due to arrive, along with most international staff. About 10 international staff are expected to stay behind in Dili to protect the compound. By this evening, it is expected that all refugees who had remained in the compound - many others had taken to the hills over the last few days - will have been flown out.
The refugees were transferred from Darwin airport to Marrara basketball stadium where they were met by health, government and humanitarian workers. Children were supplied with toys and members of the clergy were on hand to offer support.