Deadly Clash In East Timor

The gunning down of three pro-Indonesian militiamen by U.N. peacekeepers in East Timor - the deadliest clash yet between the militants and the Australian-led troops - was raising fears Saturday of a guerrilla campaign.

Three other militiamen were believed wounded in the clash Saturday near the village of Marko, some 15 miles from the border of Indonesian-held West Timor, said Col. Mark Kelly, chief of staff of the peacekeeping force. None of the international troops was injured, he said.

The clash, the fourth in the past 10 days, increased concern that bands of militants were coming across the border to fight the multinational force.

Militia leaders who fled to West Timor with their followers when the international troops arrived have repeatedly threatened to return to fight the foreign forces in East Timor.

The peacekeepers, who number about 8,000 soldiers, are boosting their presence along the border with West Timor.

The peacekeeping force was deployed to East Timor on Sept. 20 to stop a rampage by the Indonesian army and its paramilitary auxiliaries after the territory voted for independence.

Saturday's skirmish occurred in the morning, when a surveillance patrol of five soldiers was fired at by about 20 militiamen, Kelly said in a statement.

He said the firefight ended when a rapid reaction team arrived by helicopter to safely evacuate the peacekeeping patrol.

Australian peacekeeper Evan Urling shakes hands with a member of East Timor's pro-independence group in Liquica on Saturday.

The paramilitary units, which were set up earlier this year by the Indonesian army, were armed with assault rifles, Kelly said.

"The tactics they're employing ... show a level of training, a level of aggression," Kelly said.

The soldiers recovered a Russian-made SKS semiautomatic from a dead militiamen, he said. The model once was standard issue in the Indonesian army and the rifles are nowadays available only from military stocks.

At least three pro-Indonesian militants have been killed in other skirmishes with the peacekeepers over the last 10 days, but they weren't as deadly as Saturday's.

In Jakarta, Indonesia's military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Sudrajat, didn't dispute Kelly's account. However, he denied that any paramilitary units have been set up or armed by Indonesia's army.

"That accusation isn't true at all. The Indonesian military is in no position to set up a militia," Sudrajat said in an interview. "The peacekeepers are only accusing us to find a scapegoat."

Like many Indonesians, Sudrajat only uses one name.

Gen. Wiranto, the country's military commander, told the Straits Times newspape in Singapore that there is no evidence of mass killings in the territory after the independence vote. He said his soldiers have no tradition of committing such atrocities in Indonesia, or any other country where they have served as peacekeepers themselves.