E. Timorese Flood Polls During Lull in Violence : Southeast Asia: Militias vow to end bloodshed and allow vote that could bring birth of a new nation. Those in line seem to lean toward independence from Indonesia.

As dawn broke today, tens of thousands of voters here in East Timor were taking advantage of a lull in violence and heading toward United Nations polling places to decide whether their former Portuguese colony should become independent or remain an Indonesian province.

Warring militias yielded to international pressure and pledged at the eleventh hour Sunday to end an orgy of bloodshed, paving the way for the historic election that could lead to the birth of a new nation.

“A long chapter in the history of our people’s struggle for affirmation of its culture and firm determination to choose its own future is reaching a conclusion,” said East Timor’s independence leader, Jose Alexandre “Xanana” Gusmao, who is under house arrest but was allowed to cast his vote for independence in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, at a polling station set up to accommodate East Timorese living outside the territory.

Gusmao, once Indonesia’s most wanted man and now a voice for forgiveness and tolerance, is widely tipped to lead East Timor if, as expected, voters opt for independence. A former guerrilla fighter, he was captured in 1992 and sentenced to 20 years in prison, but the government says he might be freed soon if the election goes smoothly.

Fearful of continued bloodshed, many of the voters who flocked to cast their ballots this morning had spent the night in the forests and hills surrounding this provincial capital.

The polls opened at 6:30 a.m., and by 8, 1,500 people, each holding a registration form, were waiting peacefully in line in the yard of a secondary school in the Becora district on the eastern outskirts of Dili.

Like seemingly everyone around him, Sebastiao da Costa, 58, a retired civil servant, said he was rejecting continued ties with Indonesia.

“Today is very important for East Timor because we’re finally getting our chance to vote for independence,” he said. “People are 100% for independence. Yes, I’ve been afraid by the violence, but nothing would have stopped me from voting today.”

Nearby stood Teresa da Carvalho, 25, a university employee who described herself as an activist and said she will not marry her fiance until this half of Timor island is independent from Jakarta, whose forces took control of the territory in 1975.

“If the vote was for autonomy,” she said, “it would be better to continue our guerrilla struggle. After 24 years, our time has come for independence.”

U.N. officials and Western diplomats said the surprise agreement signed by the pro- and anti-independence militias Sunday was in large part a result of international pressure exerted on Indonesia, which in turn pushed the militias and its own security forces to end the violence that has racked the province.

World Threatens to Withhold Aid

The tacit message delivered by the international community was: If the election is derailed by violence, donors may cut their much-needed financial assistance to Indonesia and turn their backs on East Timor, an impoverished backwater of little political, economic or strategic significance.

There was an unconfirmed report today from an anti-independence militia that a separatist mob stabbed two of its members to death.

Although Sunday’s agreement basically only reiterated conditions the militias have signed on to--and ignored--before, it was noteworthy that the young thugs who have roamed Dili in recent weeks with spears, swords, machetes, bows and arrows, and homemade firearms mostly faded from the streets as an eerie calm fell over the tense capital.

The rest of the province was markedly quieter, too, after the accord was announced Sunday morning at a news conference chaired by Ian Martin, chief of the U.N. mission that has 1,000 members representing 70 nations here.

“It may have been said before, but the agreement gives shape and meat to the whole ballot process,” said Tamrat Samuel, a senior U.N. political affairs officer. “We’re taking it seriously.”

Under terms of the deal brokered by the U.N. during two days of talks, the opposing militias agreed not to carry weapons outside their designated cantonment areas, to support efforts by the police to arrest violators, to make joint inspections of each other’s cantonments and to work toward a free and fair election allowing the 430,000 registered voters to determine their own future.

Eurico Guterres, the deputy commander of an anti-independence militia who only last week had promised to turn East Timor into a “sea of fire” if voters choose independence, said it was time for reconciliation in order to support the 800,000 people of the province.

“We have entrusted the army to do all it can to support this reconciliation,” he said.

For his part, Falur Rate Laek, deputy commander of the independence militia, said there can be no winners or losers in the 24-year struggle for independence that has claimed 200,000 lives, and “we should take full responsibility to settle the conflict.” He and Guterres hugged and joined arms for photographers, who are among the more than 600 Indonesian and foreign journalists on hand for the election.

Police Vow to Enforce Peace

Police Chief Col. Timbul Silaen, whose 8,000-man force has been timid and incompetent in its appointed mission of providing pre- and post-election security, said his men would become aggressive in arresting agitators. And military commander Noer Muir, whose 18,000 soldiers have actively sided with the forces wanting continued association with Indonesia, said, “We hope God almighty will place his blessing on this agreement.”

It was a tall order that left much room for skepticism. But many dared to hope. Said Australian businessman Gino Favaro, who owns the 25-room Hotel Dili, which was occupied by the Japanese during World War II: “I’m an optimist. If we have peace, hundreds of millions of dollars in aid are going to pour in from nations around the world. East Timor will boom.”

Voters are being asked two questions. First: “Do you accept the proposal for autonomy for East Timor within the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia?” Second: “Do you reject the special autonomy for East Timor, leading to East Timor’s separation from Indonesia?”

Indonesia, which invaded in 1975--after Portugal walked away from its colony--and then annexed the territory the next year despite international condemnation, had long insisted that it would never relinquish the province. But the U.N. and most of the world never recognized Indonesia’s sovereignty over the area.

Then, in January, President B. J. Habibie stunned everyone by offering the East Timorese the choice of independence or wide-ranging autonomy within the republic. The offer set off a wave of violence as unruly militias, particularly those supporting independence, set out to intimidate the opposition.

“A lot of people at this time are very afraid,” the Roman Catholic bishop of Dili, Carlos Ximenes Belo, co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Peace, said in a message to the East Timorese on Sunday.

But, he went on: “Don’t be afraid. Be brave and choose the future of East Timor. This generation will create history, and people all over the world will talk about us.

“They will talk about the warrior people and the brave-hearted. Be responsible. Please be cautious. Do not provoke others. Just go quietly, cast your vote and quietly return to your homes and pray.”