Sult og terror blant flyktninger på Øst-Timor

HUNGER AND TERROR IN EAST TIMOR AMONG 100,000 REFUGEES Paramilitaries Continue to Control the Exiles' Camps

JAKARTA, APR 18 (ZENIT.org-FIDES).- The Indonesian government has threatened to cut aid to some 100,000 East Timorese refugees in West Timor camps. Nonetheless, volunteer workers told the Vatican agency "Fides" that the news that humanitarian aid will stop is less frightening than the terror caused by paramilitaries who control many of the camps.

"The food situation is critical," stated Cassianus Teguh-Budiarto, a volunteer working with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Atambua on the East/West border. "The government still provides about $2 per person a month for food, although the money does not arrive regularly and is often late." The news that the West Timor government will soon cut humanitarian aid "has motivated many refugees to seek to return to East Timor," the volunteer said.

Recently, Governor Pieter Tallo of West Timor said the province is in financial difficulty. The central government had threatened to cut aid at the end of March. On March 31, Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab said, "There is room for extending the refugee deadline... if the international community can provide additional financial assistance."

Vice Provincial Governor Johannes Pake said the government must allocate more funds because the already impoverished local people have become exhausted taking care of the refugees. The authorities tried to convince the refugees to move elsewhere, but only 150 families accepted.

Indonesia's national budget will open the new fiscal period of 2000-2001 in April, 2000. The central government argues it cannot support the refugees for an indefinite amount of time while there are another 400,000 refugees from various other conflicts across the country who need attention, particularly in the Moluccas and Aceh, the northern tip of Sumatra.

In addition to this precarious situation, there is a more serious problem: "The refugees are too frightened" to be worried about the cuts in humanitarian aid, the volunteer said. Militiamen control many of the camps and terrorize the refugees. In Lebur camp, one of the largest in West Timor, militiamen have let the refugees return to East Timor, but at Haliwen and Haliluli camps many Indonesian soldiers, natives of East Timor, and militiamen have seriously threatened the refugees not to leave the camps. "Apparently, they are holding the refugees for their own ends," he explained.

Catholic Bishop Anton Pain Ratu of Atambua says many people are uncertain about what to do. This uncertainty, added to severe shortage of food, could provoke violence, he told "Fides." Although many tried to return, they faced additional uncertainty and terror in the newborn country of East Timor, because they are suspected of being unwanted pro-Indonesia supporters, the Bishop explained. ZE00041804

ZEN - Zenith