WITH Jakarta bowing to increasing world pressure and allowing in a United Nations peace-keeping force, at last there is hope for an end to the horror that descended on East Timor after its people overwhelmingly voted two weeks ago for independence from Indonesia.

But though this climbdown by the Indonesian government has come about after Britain and the United States suspended arms sales to Indonesia and threatened more tough sanctions, the international community must be prepared for resistance at the scene to both Jakarta's submission and to an armed UN presence.

For, just as was shown by the murderous rampage by anti-independence militias who were aided and abetted by the Indonesian military, the rule of law and the authority of Indonesia's president, B.J. Habibie, hardly extends to far-flung East Timor and is evidently resisted by the country's armed forces who were, until only recently, the powerful prop of a repressive dictatorship.

The eventuality of the barbaric militias and even of Indonesian troops themselves turning on the UN forces and once more on the East Timorese, is one for which the international community must be prepared - with a punitive response.

But if the UN finds itself drawn into a bloody conflict in this former Portuguese colony, it is an ordeal it must endure for the sake of human rights and democracy and also so that the western governments, who are now the advocates of intervention in East Timor, may redress their past support for the repressive former Indonesian regime and its military leaders who remain manifestly unreformed. The fact is that Indonesia, despite being a clearly corrupt and brutal regime for decades, was supported and armed - with rich-pickings for our defence industries - by the west because it was regarded as a bulwark against the perceived Communist threat in South East Asia.

The repression of the East Timorese was for too long disregarded in that equation.

It may be that the UN action in East Timor, in terms of principle, mirrors that of NATO in Kosovo which was a just conflict for which Britain may claim merit.

But there is a murky background to the high-mindedness that we now display, for which we can be less proud and for which we owe a duty to the East Timorese today.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.