May 11, 1999
Web posted at: 5:23 a.m. EDT (0923 GMT)

DILI, Indonesia (CNN) -- East Timor's capital was tense but quiet Tuesday after two days of fighting among pro and anti-independence mobs left four dead.

The fighting came as the United Nations prepared to send an international mission to East Timor to prepare for a historic vote on the territory's future.

East Timor police chief Col. Timbul Silaen said two people were killed Monday in Dili in an exchange of gunfire. Another man, who was injured Sunday, died of his wounds. The official death toll for both days stood at four, Silaen said.

Violence has escalated in the territory since Indonesia -- in a surprise policy reversal -- announced in January that it would put the 800,000 Timorese on the road to independence if they reject wide-ranging autonomy. Indonesia annexed East Timor in 1976 after Indonesian troops seized control of the territory.

Pro-independence rebel groups and pro-Indonesian signed a peace pledge on April 21, along with top Indonesian military leaders, but the violence has continued.

Pro-independence activists want a full U.N. peacekeeping force deployed. They accuse Indonesian security forces of helping pro-Indonesian militia groups cause havoc to derail the ballot. The army denies the charge.

East Timor's Roman Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo, the co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, said the August 8 poll would not be free and fair in an atmosphere of violence.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on all armed groups to lay down their weapons "well in advance of the holding of the ballot."

The United Nations plans to send some 600 staff members to East Timor to oversee the vote, as well as an undetermined number of civilian police.

The U.N. mission should be deployed to the territory by mid-June, said Francesc Vendrell, director of the Asia and Pacific division of the U.N. Department of Political Affairs.

A chief of mission, to be named shortly, is expected to be in East Timor by May 20, he added.

"For the registration process to begin, there have to be minimum security conditions, minimum ability for the various political groups to express themselves, freedom for the voters to go to the registration offices and register themselves," Vendrell said.

Annan will be constantly assessing the security situation in the weeks leading up to the vote to determine whether the ballot should go ahead, Vendrell said.

Jakarta Bureau Chief Maria Ressa, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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