Summary
The situation in
East Timor remain grave. Reports estimated that 20,000
members of the armed militia groups and some 18,000
Indonesia troops, including special forces soldiers are
in East Timor. East Timorese non-government
organizations, church leaders, members of the National
Council of Timorese Resistance and foreigners are
targeted and included in the alleged Indonesia military
death list. Indonesian military and military-backed
militia are allegedly conducting house-to house searches
in Kupang, Atambua and Kefamenanu in West Timor (a
province of Indonesia) and in Indonesia itself. Kupang
and Atambua are the main destinations for displaced East
Timorese in West Timor. Systematic violence against the
East Timorese refugees continue with reports of the
alleged summary executions between September 7 to 9 in
Atapupu, West Timor of an unconfirmed number of East
Timorese fleeing Dili.
There is genuine fear of a lack of security and
protection for displaced East Timorese in West Timor
because many foreign aid workers are unable to access the
militia-controlled refugee camps to distribute supplies.
Unless the security situation improves, aid worker warn
that the thousands of East Timorese refugees, who have
crossed into Indonesia-controlled neighboring West Timor,
will soon face an acute food shortage especially if
foreign aid agencies are denied access to them. Sources
claim that East Timorese refugees in West Timor might be
moved to other parts of Indonesia, "unknown
destinations, without rights, money or hope",
instead of being sent back to East Timor when United
Nations peacekeepers move in .
The forthcoming weeks and months will require diligence
and perservance by the international community to show
concern for the 600,000 East Timorese (almost three-quarter
of the population of East Timor) who remain in East Timor
who have been displaced by recent violence and are at
risk of starvation, malaria, dehydration, acute
respiratory infections and gastro-intestinal diseases.
Another 200,000 are refugees in West Timor. The Nobel
Laureate - Jose Ramos Horta warns that "the coming
days could still be terrible for the Timorese population,
for the hundreds of thousands of Timorese in the
mountains".
CONTINUED INTERNATIONAL ACTIONS AT THE MOMENT ARE VERY
IMPORTANT TO ENSURE SECRUITY OF LIVES IN EAST AND WEST
TIMOR, AS WELL AS DURING THE COMING TRANSITION TO
INDEPENDENCE.
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| Action Requested Please write to :
* express your concern about the situation of internally
displaced East Timorese and refugees in East and West
Timor;
* ensure the security and protection of East Timorese
people including refugees and internally displaced
people, by allowing local and international humanitarian
aid agencies to be guaranteed unrestricted access to
provide humanitarian aids, health care, food, water and
essentials for survival.
* call for the UN human rights monitoring to stop further
human rights abuses in East and West Timor.
(1) His Excellency Kofi Annan, Secretary General to the
United Nations
United Nations Headquarters, New York, NY 10017, U.S.A.
Fax : 1 - 212 - 963 4879 / 2155
Email: ecu@un.org or webadmin.hchr@unog.ch
(2) Mrs Sadako Ogata, High Commissioner, The United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) C.P. 2500,
1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Email: webmaster@unhcr.ch
(3) President Yusuf Habibie, Office of the President,
Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Indonesia
Fax : 62 21 345 7782 Email:habibie@ristek.go.id
SEND COPIES TO:
(4) General Wiranto, Minister for Defence Forces, Menteri
Pertahanan Keamanan RI, Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat No 13 -14,
Jakarta 10110, Indonesia
Fax: 62 21 3845 178
(5) Mr. Marzuki Durusman, National Commission on Human
Rights, Sekretaris Jenderal, Komisi Nasional Hak Azasi
Manusia (Komnas HAM), Jl. Latuharhary No. 4B, Menteng
Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia
Fax : 62 21 392 5227 Email: info@komnas.go.id
(6) Diplomatic representatives of Indonesia in your
country.
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Sample
Letter
| I/we
am/are encouraged by your effort to bring peace
and security to East Timor and the dispatch of UN
peace-keeping forces. However, I/we am/are
gravely concerned about the continued
intimidation of East Timorese people,
particularly internally displaced people,
refugees and humanitarian aid workers in East and
West Timor. Reports of alleged attacks of foreign
workers who provide humanitarian aid to East
Timorese and house to house searches in Kupang,
Atambua and Kefamenanu by the Indonesian military
and military-backed militia are disturbing. To
prevent further human right abuses and loss of
human lives in East and West Timor, I/we urge you
to take further action to ensure that the
security situation in East and West Timor should
be immediately restored, with local and
international humanitarian aid agencies
guaranteed unrestricted access to provide
humanitarian aids, water, food, essential for the
survival of the population. I/we also urge that
United Nations human rights monitoring should be
carried out to stop further human rights abuses
in East and West Timor. |
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Background
PLIGHT OF
REFUGEES
While the world is awaiting for the United Nations peace-keeping
forces' arrival in East Timor, the present situation and
possible scenarios for the future of the East Timorese
refugees is worrying. Forced displacement of refugees
from East Timor to West Timor continue. There are 98,000
refugees in the area of Atambua and the number will reach
150,000, including those were shipped to Kupang and other
areas of Indonesia and those flown to Australia. There
are frequent reports said that East Timorese refugees are
living in fear and insecurity because armed militias
continue terrorizing them and are accused of taking away
individual refugees to unknown places. Those who look
after the displaced people had reported of their fear of
abduction and violent attacks.
There is an absence of men from the refugees. Sources
claim that some men have sought refugee in the mountains,
some may have forced to join militia gangs, while some
are separated from their families on the way west, and
executed in front of their families. Sources from West
Timor also warn that "the young men recruited
locally and who later leave the militia will be sought
out and murdered rather let them live to tell about the
atrocities they witnesses". The forced evacuation of
the population, who will allegedly be used by Indonesia
as "pro-integration from the area between the Dili
and the West Timor border will become an excuse to grant
independence to only half of the territory of East Timor:"
The safety of up to 100,000 East Timorese refugees in the
town of Dare, 9 km south of the capital city Dili is also
worrying. There are reports that one unidentified female
refugee being killed and one male refugee missing as a
result of an alleged attack launched by about 50 Kopassus
members (Special Forces Command) of the Indonesia
military in Dare on September 11.
According to local sources, the most urgent needs include
"tents or funds to erect temporary accommodation,
water storage and tanks for the camps and tanker trucks
to transport water, food and nutritional food supplements
like milk, powder and nutritional baby food, clothes and
light blankets, or the funds to buy them locally; and a
need 'to bury the dead'. These displace people have no
means to bury their dead but with such huge numbers in
the above mentioned conditions there will be deaths
everyday."
You can contact
your local branch of the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) or Hotline about contributing to relief
aid for the refugees.
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