[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesia steps up security at Timor border

[Joyo at aol.com]

Indonesia steps up security at Timor border

JAKARTA, September 3 (AFP) -- Indonesian authorities
have stepped up security at the border with East Timor
to prevent a rebel East Timor military leader who
escaped from jail from entering the country, a report
said Sunday.

Major Alfredo Reinado escaped with 56 other inmates
from his Dili jail last week, triggering an ongoing
manhunt by UN police and international peacekeepers.

"The Indonesian embassy in Dili has asked us to be
alert and conduct monitoring so that Alfredo and his
friends do not cross over into Indonesia," Colonel
Ediwan Prabowo, who heads military security at the
border, told the Koran Tempo newspaper.

Prabowo, who could not be immediately reached on
Sunday, was quoted by Tempo as saying that border
troops were now reinforced by soldiers and police and
residents along the border had also been asked to
report anyone crossing the frontier.

Reinado was arrested last month on charges of weapons
possession.

International troops discovered the rebel leader had
nine handguns in his possession, despite promises from
his group that they had surrendered all their weapons
to Australian soldiers in June.

In May, Reinado led a group of 600 deserting troops
and was accused of sparking civil unrest, including
clashes among rival security forces and gang wars on
the streets that killed 21 people.

The violence prompted the deployment of an
Australian-led international peacekeeping force.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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