Militias acting with the encouragement of Indonesia's army are attacking villages in East Timor, hoping to prevent a vote for independence in the long-contested island. Washington, unlike Australia, has yet to use its influence to tilt the Indonesian army away from violence. PNS contributor Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat, has authored numerous books and articles on U.S. foreign affairs.

As accounts of Serb paramilitaries killing and raping civilians in Kosovo fill the news, Americans have heard little of another deadly -- and rapidly escalating -- situation in East Timor.

One reason for the lack of coverage may be the fact that these killer gangs have been armed and encouraged by the Indonesian Army, and especially its elite Red Beret (Kopassus) commandos, which until last year received special training and equipment from the United States and Australia.

In January, Indonesian President Habibie surprised the world by announcing that the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, which Indonesia invaded and occupied in 1975, would be allowed to choose between autonomy within Indonesia and independence.

It is now clear that this did not please the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI).

Since Habibie's announcement, there have been numerous reports of various "militias" mounting small-scale attacks on East Timorese villages. Some have only clubs and machetes, others are newly trained and armed by the ABRI, but all operate without interference from the Army.

They are also sponsored by officials who have risen to power under Indonesian protection, and face a dismal future if (as expected) East Timor votes for independence.

In recent weeks, these attacks have moved to larger towns such as Liquisa, where foreign observers could report on army and police complicity. Last weekend militias marched on the capital of Dili, where militia commander Eurico Guterres called on them "to conduct a cleansing of all those who betrayed integration" with Indonesia.

Militias then went on a rampage, killing an estimated 13 to 50 and wounding many more. The response of the Indonesian authorities was to convene the militias, now empowered as an official self-defense force, at a rally in front of the Governor's office where Guterres' leadership was officially recognized.

The situation may deteriorate further. The militias have reportedly targeted Nobel Prize winner Bishop Carlos Belo in Dili and death squads are said to be pursuing resistance leader Xanana Gusmao and former governor Mario Carrascalao -- all three have been negotiating fruitfully with the Habibie government and even with pro-integrationist Timorese.

Confusion prevails at all levels. A small army unit now guards Bishop Belo's home. During the mayhem in Dili, some army units protected civilians, others joked with the killers, still others did nothing.

Diplomatic sources in Jakarta report dissension among both military and civilian leaders. Habibie himself appears to have wavered, troubled to see pro-secession movements gain momentum in the regions of Irian Jaya and Aceh. Yet he must be sensitive to global opinion since he needs foreign capital to bolster the sagging economy.

At the center of this confusion is ABRI commander Wiranto, often said to be a moderate reformer responsive to world public opinion. The South China Morning Post reports that he attended a senior security co-ordination meeting in Jakarta where plans for the militia attack were discussed. Yet on April 21, Wiranto, on orders from Habibie, flew to Dili and tried to arrange for militias to lay down (but not surrender) their arms -- a move that appears not to be working so far.

This attempt to restore order came after Habibie received an urgent phone call from Australian Prime Minister Howard, who warned that Indonesia's international reputation was threatened by the violence in East Timor. The two leaders will now meet in Bali the last week of April.

The Australian Government is clearly concerned at the prospect of a possible civil war on its doorstep which could produce a flood of refugees. More and more newspapers in Australia have called for the immediate deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in which Australian troops would participate.

The U.S. response has been, by contrast, relatively muted and low-level. State Department spokesmen have spoken of being "deeply disturbed" and called on Indonesia to disarm the paramilitary and reduce troops. But the United States has not yet publicly used its influence, commensurate to Australia's, to tilt the Indonesian Government away from violence.

One reason may be that Washington is as divided as Jakarta. The State Department has spoken out against human rights violations in East Timor, and Congress, responding to reports of Kopassus involvement in a major massacre in 1991, voted in 1992 to cut off all training and equipment for Kopassus.

However it was revealed last year that the Pentagon secretly continued its links to Kopassus under another program. This should come as no surprise. For three decades Washington's Indonesia policy has centered on support for the Army, and in particular Kopassus, despite the latter's bloody human rights record. That training may even have included lessons in how to deputize the bloody work of massacres to paramilitary units -- a tactic that has been employed by other "elite" battalions in Latin America, whose leaders, like those of Kopassus, were trained at Fort Benning, Georgia.

One thing is clear. As of today Washington, unlike Canberra, has not yet taken decisive steps to ensure that East Timor will not degenerate into another Kosovo.