THE OTHER IMPORTANT VOTE

Two days after they arrived, UNAMET members were dining at a seaside restaurant, when pro-integration militiamen attacked the area, burning some 10 homes and sending 15 families fleeing. In the smoldering ruins the next day, student Anselmo underlined the tragic irony: "The U.N. says they are here. But the militias are still shooting."

On May 17, UNAMET issued a strongly worded statement - its first - condemning the militias. But words are the only weapons the U.N. brings to troubled East Timor. The mission eventually will consist of 600 civilians organizing the referendum, as well as 270 "police advisers" to assist local cops and to supervise the transport of ballot boxes on the day of the vote. Full responsibility for keeping the peace during the vote remains with the Indonesian military and police. Yet those are precisely the parties responsible for arming the militias which, having failed to stop the referendum, are now hell-bent on intimidating the population to choose continued integration.

Despite military denials that it aids and supports pro-integration militias, the evidence on the ground says otherwise. Militia members carry military-issue arms. In the hamlet of Hera, east of Dili, the local Aitarak militia leader shares a command post with soldiers. Eyewitnesses report mobile police units backing up militia assaults on civilians. Soldiers and police were seen participating in the April 17 attack on the home of pro-independence figure Manuel Carrascalao, which resulted in the massacre of at least 20 people, including Carrascalao's son. Since then, militias have been hunting pro-independence figures, many of whom are now in exile or in hiding.

Pro-independence guerrillas also have recently taken the lives of pro-integrationists and soldiers. But there is little doubt which group represents the greatest threat to security and order. Asiaweek has learned of a secret memorandum to the May 5 agreement that deals specifically with the militias, which now occupy all of the countryside west of Dili, as well as most urban areas. In it, the U.N. expects Indonesia to "maintain armed civilian groups under strict control and discipline," and "create immediately a process of disarmament."

Yet what Indonesia's civilian government may pledge, its military may be reluctant to deliver. The former Portuguese colony has been a key posting for influential former, retired or serving generals. The list includes former intelligence chief L.B. "Benny" Murdani, who led the 1975 invasion, and former special forces head Lt.-Gen. Prabowo Subianto, who advanced the use of paramilitaries.

Jakarta wants the vote out of the way fast so the policy-making People's Consultative Assembly can approve autonomy, or consider separation, when it meets Aug. 29. But the deep ties many military figures have in East Timor means haste in Jakarta is answered with resistance - even undeclared revolt - in Dili.

Meanwhile, old divisions have re-emerged in East Timor, even among pro-integrationists. Young firebrands have formed the Forum for Unity, Democracy and Justice (FPDK). The older generation of pro-Indonesia East Timorese have their own group, the People's Front for East Timor (BRTT). The former claims an "advisory relationship" with the militias, while the latter has been struggling to get the militias under legal control. Indonesian ambassador-at-large in East Timor, Francisco Lopez da Cruz, is a founding member of BRTT. He frets about the harm the militias have done to the process "precisely when all of us are trying to do our utmost to have a peaceful vote."

If the militias are complicating moderate pro-integrationists' ability to persuade a traumatized population that autonomy within Indonesia is the best option, they are preventing altogether the pro-independence side from making their case public. David Ximenes, coordinator of the pro-independence National Council for the Timorese Resistance, told Asiaweek he can only emerge from hiding if UNAMET establishes security. And that can only happen, he says, "if the Indonesian military is withdrawn from East Timor."

That brings us back to the starting point: the same group entrusted with ensuring the safety of the vote is answerable for the danger now surrounding it. Despite this, the U.N. mission believes the referendum will happen. "There will not be a cancellation," says its spokesman David Wimhurst. Still, less than three months remain before the scheduled vote, and the more East Timorese who fall prey to armed marauders, the fewer the number of voters.