Timor conflict
As tension in East Timor remains high, South Africa is set to get involved in the conflict in the former Indonesian colony, write Paul Kirk and Ivor Powell
Within days a team of 40 South African bodyguards will set off for the East Timorese capital of Dili – their mission: to protect Jos “Xanana” Gusmao, leader of the National Council of the East Timorese Resistance.
The team has been assembled by two Durban-based security companies, Empower Loss Control Services and KZN Security.
The Mail & Guardian has learned that the briefing to the companies apparently came directly from high-ranking officials in the Office of the President after Gusmao approached Thabo Mbeki’s office asking for help to protect himself.
However, a senior source inside the president’s office clarified this by saying that the approach – which came from Gusmao’s Fretelin movement – was not made to the presidency but to the African National Congress as a fraternal liberation movement. The source added that individuals who facilitated the process did so as ANC members rather than as representatives of the South African government.
The source said Gusmao had taken the unusual step of approaching his South African comrades for help because he felt he could not trust bodyguards the Indonesians might provide, and his own guerrillas lack the necessary specialist training in VIP protection techniques.
The South African contingent is being trained at the Colt Shooting Range in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
The source told the M&G that the bodyguarding mission was being undertaken, without publicity, under the aegis of the United Nations and that the team of bodyguards would be integrated – in an undercover capacity – into UN peacekeeping forces about to be deployed in the troubled region.
Technically, sending bodyguards to East Timor could be an infraction of South Africa’s anti-mercenary laws – which specify that government permission has to be obtained by security operatives wanting to take up contracts beyond South Africa’s borders. The South African government has not, officially at least, given its blessing to the project.
The legislation also demands that permission be given by the host government for security companies to operate inside their territories – a grey area in the case of East Timor, which formally came under UN administration on Tuesday October 26. Before that time it was under Indonesian occupation – which has been declared illegal by the world community.
This week UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced that Australian-led troops currently securing East Timor would be replaced by an 9 000-strong UN task force.
ANC representative Smuts Ngonyama denied any knowledge of the party’s involvement in procuring bodyguards, but did not rule out the possibility that individual ANC members could have been involved.
Gusmao first met former president Nelson Mandela in 1997 and since then the two have been in regular contact. Also in 1997, Mandela was given a special mandate to act on behalf of the UN to seek solutions to the East Timorese crisis.
The two companies involved in recruiting and training the bodyguards were told the guards had to be coloured so they could blend in with the Timorese population.
The team will be arriving in a region which remains highly volatile. Australian troops have been involved in a number of firefights with anti-independence militiamen, and Gusmao has allegedly been targeted for assassination.
Said Shadrack Dladla, a director of KZN Security: “The situation in East Timor is similar to what the situation was in South Africa immediately after Nelson Mandela’s release. A lot of threats have been made and a lot of hotheads are running around with guns.
“Mr Gusmao approached friends of his in the ANC for assistance. You must realise he did not approach them as members of a political party or as members of the government, he approached them as friends. He has known a lot of members of the ANC for many years.”
Dladla said the contract was not yet finalised, as some technicalities were being ironed out. He did confirm, however, that negotiations were at an advanced stage.
The M&G has learned that the team will be ready to leave within days. Wednesday November 3 has been mentioned as a departure date, but not yet confirmed.
Gusmao was captured by Indonesian troops in 1992 as leader of the militant Fretelin, which had waged a guerrilla war against the Indonesian occupation since that country invaded on the eve of East Timorese independence in 1975. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail after a trial that Amnesty International slammed as unfair and highly irregular.
Often labelled the “Timorese Mandela” in his home country, Gusmao is considerably more fiery than Madiba and his organisation fears this may make him an extremely tempting target for anti- independence militia and rogue members of the Indonesian military.
Despite Australian-led calls from the UN for the whole of East Timor to be disarmed, Gusmao has consistently refused to call on his supporters to lay down their arms.
In his most recent television interview he said his resistance movement was not the aggressor, adding that if his supporters were to disarm they would be easy prey for marauding pro-Indonesia militiamen.
Adding to the high tension – and the possibility that the South African team will become involved in violence – is the public circulation of a hit list on the streets of Dili. Gusmao occupies the number-one position on the list.
At least one potential bodyguard who was considering taking up the contract declined after giving consideration to the potential dangers. Speaking on condition of anonymity the man said: “I just felt the chances of coming home in a body bag were just too great.
“It was made quite clear to us that we were working for a security company and not a government. As such the only support we could count on would be from the company. It was explained quite clearly that the South African government would not get involved.”