Mr TIM FISCHER (3:14 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister inform the House on progress being made by the Indonesian authorities to disarm the militias in west Timor and enable those refugees who so wish to to return to East Timor? What is the government's reaction to the communal violence that has occurred there and in some other areas of Indonesia in recent months?

Mr DOWNER (Minister for Foreign Affairs) —Can I thank the honourable member for Farrer for his question. I think all members of the House know that he has a great interest in Indonesia and also in East Timor. Indeed, the House may be interested to know that the member for Farrer's book on East Timor has sold over 5,000 copies so far. I believe copies are still available.

Mr SPEAKER —The Minister for Foreign Affairs may be drifting a little from the question.

Mr DOWNER —They are uncharitable remarks, by the way, from the Leader of the Opposition. The government welcomes the news that Eurico Guterres, who is one of the most prominent and notorious of the militia leaders in East Timor, was arrested in Jakarta yesterday and apparently will be charged with weapons offences in the very near future. The Australian government has been particularly concerned about the activities of Mr Guterres, and I made public our concerns I think on 7 September. So in the whole context of the Indonesian government moving to disband the militias in west Timor, as they have committed themselves to doing, this is a promising development. There is no doubt, though, in terms of collecting weapons from the militias in west Timor there is a long way to go. I draw the attention of the House to the fact that the Indonesian authorities said on 1 October that they had collected a substantial number of automatic guns—some 85—17 grenades and about 1,000 homemade weapons. Other ministers in Indonesia gave different figures on 1 October, and the Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Bambang Yudhoyono, reported the seizure under the voluntary phase of 63 military style guns, 40 grenades and 1,103 home-made weapons, so those figures are not entirely consistent.

I make the point that the Australian government, along with the rest of the international community, remains very concerned about the number of weapons that are available to militias in west Timor, and of course from our perspective the risk it puts our own peacekeepers and other personnel—and obviously other members of the international community—in East Timor to. Nevertheless I had a discussion with the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Dr Alwi Shihab, during the course of today. In the course of that discussion I congratulated him on Indonesia's decision to arrest Eurico Guterres but I also reiterated the view of the Australian government, and I am sure of the Australian community as a whole, that we do hope that this campaign to collect weapons from the militias will be successful and that it is important to Indonesia's international standing that it be successful. The voluntary phase of the collection of the weapons is now complete and the Indonesian authorities have extended, I think until around the middle of October, the sweep by TNI and the police, POLRI, through west Timor to try to collect weapons. It is important that this process is successful, and we urge the Indonesians, as I did Dr Shihab in my discussions with him today, to ensure that it is indeed successful.

The honourable member also asked about instability and problems in other parts of Indonesia. I draw the honourable member's attention to the fact that, according to Indonesian statistics, since January 1999 around 2,500 people have died in the Malukus in communal violence, that something like 500,000 people have been injured and wounded in that violence and that 400,000 people have become displaced persons. So we remain in this country, as I know they are in other countries, very concerned about the situation in the Malukus. As a result, today the government has announced a commitment of a further $1 million of emergency relief to the Malukus which will be distributed through a French based non-government organisation called Action contre la Faim. We are very concerned, and I think it is appropriate that here in this country we should do everything we possibly can to provide assistance to these humanitarian crises in Indonesia.