Army building roads in East Timor

Army building roads in East Timor

According to the Jakarta Post, Indonesia is to construct 120 kilometres of roads in the southern part of East Timor.

The government claims the roads "will encourage the development of the economic system of the province", but this is likely to be merely a side effect of a system for improving military access to the remote parts of East Timor. Only the northern areas of the country have roads, 12 km of which were built by the Portuguese.

More roads will mean more military operations, more transmigrants and yet more resettlement of East Timorese. The project is to be completed during the current Five Year Plan, ending in 1994. Two Indonesian Army engineers corps will be involved in the project.

From GLW issue 11