East Timor 1999-2000- militias pose greater threat

In the aftermath of East Timor's liberation by INTERFET in Sept-Oct 1999 during op STABILISE, there were fears amongst the UN and Australia that the pro-Indonesian militias responsible for the systematic destruction and carnage, and who'd fled over the border into West Timor, would continue to pose a grave security risk to ET's security, esp with the presence of refugee camps inside WT which were used as bases and the covert support being continually provided to the militias by Indon security forces. As a result, the Australian-led force patrolling Sector West right on the ET-WT border (which also included Kiwis, Canadians- later repalced by Nepalese, Fijians, Irish, Brazilians, Portuguese and Kenyans under Australian command) were very vigilant in patrolling the border region and preventing the infiltration of militiamen. There were a fair few incidents where the INTERFET and later UNTAET peacekeepers encountered exchanged fire with and killed some militiamen, while in Sept 2000 1 NZ and 1 Nepalese soldier were also KIA in clashes with the militias. The UN and Australian forces in the end were able to successfully prevent the largescale infiltration of these militias and thereby preserved ET's stability.

Now, WI the militias during 1999-2000 really were a massive security threat to ET, with largescale formations managing to infiltrate over the border to try to carry out much larger raids ? How would Australia and the UN have reacted politically and diplomatically towards Indonesia over Jakarta's failure to effectively reign in these armed elements ? WI say a prominent militia leader such as Eurrico Guterres (extremely outspoken pro-Indon spokesman and leader of the AITARAK ('Thorn') militia) had participated in 1 of these cross-border raids and been killed or captured by UN pks ? The body of the NZ soldier KIA in Sept 2000 was also mutilated by the ambushing militiamen, who cut off his ears to try to claim the reward which had been put on UN soldiers- now WI somehow there'd been more such incidents where pks from any UN contributor country had been ambushed, killed and mutilated, or possibly even taken hostage, by militiamen ?

There's also within WT but legally part of ET the Oecussi enclave, which was liberated by Australian airborne troops of 3RAR during Op LAVARACK, and during the transition to UNTAET the area was handed over to a Jordanian bn, which led to great opposition amongst Timorese locals and spokesmen like Jose Ramos Horta who argued that the Jordanians, as Muslims, were far too pro-Indon. Now, WI the militias had also directed significant attacks into Oecussi ?
 
I think you'll find that the Australian military adopted a policy of "zero tolerance" towards the militas in the OTL. If the militas were worse, I don't see any change in Australia's policy towards them.

Instead, expect an even larger commitment by Australia's armed forces. So include a few extra infantry battalions, more light armour (M-113s, LAV-25s), bascally all the SAS, losts of artillery, a major committment by the RAAFs F-18s & F-111, & finally several RAN ships providing fire-support & troop incursion.

Any war, which would follow, would be short & swift. May God have pity on the militas, because the Australians won't.
 
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