ATAMBUA, Indonesia, Sep. 7, 00 (CWNews.com/Fides)

    An Indonesian bishop, reflecting on a deadly attack on a United Nations compound in the province of West Timor this week, warned that the Catholic Church might be the next target of militia groups.

    "The situation is unruly and threatening and it might worsen if people were afraid of asking help from humanitarian agencies. The next target might be the Church," Bishop Anton Pain-Ratu of Atambua, West Timor said one day after the murder of three members of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and a civilian in Atambua, on the border between East and West Timor.

    The bishop commented on the withdrawal of aid agencies: "The absence of the agencies will make the East Timorese refugees even more desperate. UN humanitarian staff have been evacuated to Bali. This has left the refugees without assistance." He condemned the attack on the UNHCR staff adding that other international and local humanitarian agencies have been threatened, including the Jesuit Refugee Service active in West Timor.

    On September 5, Bishop Pain-Ratu met West Timor governor, provincial head of police, and local military commander in West Timor, General Kiki Syahnakri to discuss security in the area, but said he was still concerned.

    The bishop said that since Thursday the pro-Jakarta militia and about 2,000 of their supporters run around town to air their grievances and protest against the killing of their leader in unknown circumstances. The militia had just been named by Indonesian Attorney General Marzuki Darusman among 19 suspects for their role in the violence after the independence ballot in East Timor last year. "Observers claim the grievance prompted the attack against the UNHCR staff members and buildings" he said.

    Before the attack on September 6, the UNHCR staff in West Timor had been attacked several times in more than 100 episodes of violence and intimidation, leading to the suspension of its assistance.

    According to Human Rights Watch Asia responsibility for the death of the UNHCR staff members can be attributed directly to the Jakarta government's failure to control the militia: "This would not have happened if Indonesian authorities had taken steps to disband the militias in West Timor and persecute them for known acts of violence," said Joe Saunders, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "But instead local civilian and military authorities gave every encouragement to these men and their political front to intimidate East Timorese refugees under their control."

    Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation in the world, invaded mainly Catholic East Timor in 1975 and annexed it the following year in a move not recognized by the United Nations. In August 1999, the region held a Jakarta-proposed referendum to allow Timorese to choose either autonomy within Indonesia or full independence. After the pro-independence results were revealed, pro-Indonesia militias, armed and backed by Indonesia's military, went on a rampage, killing hundreds and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the former Portuguese colony into West Timor.

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