Indonesia troops may quit E Timor in 48 hours

DILI, OCT 29: The last Indonesian troops in East Timor could leave the ravaged territory within 48 hours, a spokesman for the UN-backed multinational force there said today.

`They still haven’t given us a confirmed date, but we’re anticipating it will be potentially within the next 48 hours,’ Colonel Mark Kelly told mediapersons. Most of Indonesia’s troops, which had numbered around 15,000, have already left after the vast majority of East Timorese voted in a referendum to break from 23 years of often brutal rule by Jakarta.

Indonesian troops had backed a wave of murder and destruction by anti-independence gangs.