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CIAO DATE: 06/06
Managing Tensions on the Timor-Leste/Indonesia Border
April 2006
Executive Summary
The legacy of “losing” Timor-Leste (East Timor) continues to haunt Indonesia, affecting attitudes toward Aceh and Papua, heightening suspicions about foreign intervention, complicating relations with Australia and perpetuating fears for territorial integrity. Despite this legacy, the shared land border has been mostly peaceful: the policy focus there should be as much on establishing the infrastructure for legal trade as on improving security.
Along the border of Timor-Leste and Indonesian West Timor, the main impact of that legacy is a fear that each new spat between neighbours and each new sign of organising by ex-militias – and in particular by the former militia leader Eurico Guterres – heralds a new round of violence. Although Timor-Leste has other significant security problems – most recently demonstrated by the 28-29 April rioting in Dili – that particular fear is largely unfounded.
