Differences emerged yesterday within the Indonesian regime as to whether it would welcome United Nations peacekeepers in East Timor.
The military spokesman, Brig Gen Sudrajat, has said a UN force would be welcomed by the Indonesian military. However, in an interview with The Irish Times, the Defence Minister, Gen Wiranto, said that after the result of Monday's vote on autonomy or independence was known, the military would still be in charge of security.
"We don't talk about UN peacekeepers right now," said Gen Wiranto, who is also head of the army.
Brig Gen Sudrajat was reported in yesterday's Jakarta Post as saying that, if necessary, Jakarta would invite the UN to deploy during the transition period, after the announcement in the next several days of the result, and before a vote in the Indonesian parliament, the NPR, on the result. The military would then gradually withdraw from the territory.
He added that if the ballot was for independence, the military would still have the responsibility for security, "but we could not do it alone; we would request the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force".
Such a force may be necessary with East Timor slipping further into anarchy. In the capital Dili yesterday, plumes of smoke rose all day from the southern suburbs of the city as fighting in the outlying village of Hera spread to the sprawling capital, though the centre itself was calm.
Increased militia activity in Dili and other towns led to urgent calls yesterday from international non-governmental organisations here for the speedy intervention of an armed UN peacekeeping force.
Two East Timorese working for the UN were killed yesterday in incidents in the town of Maliana. The two men died during an attack on a student dormitory in the town, 140 km south-west of Dili. This follows the killing of three people, including a UN staff member, in the Emmera district on Monday after polling closed. Reports came in all day from around East Timor of new militia roadblocks and attacks on independence sympathisers. In Vequeque, five hours' drive from the capital, militias were said to have blocked roads leading into the town and begun house-to-house searches for their victims.
The Indonesian government's response was to send an additional 200 police yesterday, but their arrival at Dili airport did little to diminish fears that the militias would create a civil war situation in advance of the expected endorsement of independence in Monday's vote - the result is expected at the weekend.
Many of the attacks have been on the homes of the hundreds of East Timorese working for the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), with the apparent aim of destroying the UN operation. "I'm particularly concerned about the safety of our local staff," Mr Ian Martin, head of UNAMET, told a press conference in Dili yesterday.
Several NGOs observing Monday's referendum said the process was unfair in that it took place in a context of "widespread fear, intimidation and violence by Indonesian military-backed militia forces". The situation now had deteriorated and fear of impending violence was widespread, said the representatives of the six NGOs at a joint press conference.
After detailing a litany of incidents of violence, Ms Yeni Rosa Damayanti, a former Indonesian political prisoner, told the press conference that "Mr Kofi Annan should send an international peacekeeping force here immediately". Meanwhile, officials of the East Timor resistance organisation, CNRT, claimed yesterday that Mr Zacky Anwar, the hard-line former head of Korpassus (army intelligence) in East Timor, who was relieved of his post after violence in Dili last week, had been put in charge of eventual evacuation plans to be co-ordinated from West Timor. This has raised concerns that his presence will further destabilise East Timor.