07 September 1999
Robinson Calls For Human Rights Commission Emergency Session on East Timor
(UNHCR officials attacked during West Timor visit) (600) By Wendy Lubetkin USIA European Correspondent Geneva -- The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged that a special session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights be convened to examine the "extremely serious" situation in East Timor. High Commissioner Mary Robinson said the continuing mass exodus and arbitrary executions in East Timor warranted her call for a special session such as those that have been held in the past to consider the situations in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda. Speaking at a meting of the Bureau of the Commission September 7, Robinson said she hoped the Commission would be able to consider the matter in the coming days, "before the situation deteriorates even further." Robinson has accused the Indonesian security forces and the militias they created of carrying out a "deliberate policy of terror and displacement." In a statement issued September 6 she said there was "very clear evidence of collusion between elements of the security forces and the militias to deport East Timorese forcibly to West Timor and elsewhere." "We cannot stand idly by and watch the East Timorese massacred, burned out of their houses and removed forcibly from the territory for having exercised their fundamental right to self-determination," she said. Separately, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported September 7 that two of its officials were slightly injured in West Timor by an angry crowd of displaced people when they tried to visit an encampment housing thousands of East Timorese who have fled since the independence referendum. UNHCR's top Geneva-based official responsible for Asia, Francois Fouinat, and another UNHCR staff member were punched, kicked and had stones thrown at them by opponents of East Timor's independence who fled to West Timor. A third UNHCR staff member also present on the scene was not hurt. The three officials had traveled to West Timor September 7 to monitor the situation there. Meanwhile, UNHCR estimated that at least 30,000 people have been displaced in East Timor, but the U.N. refugee agency acknowledged that it really has no way of assessing how many people have fled their homes following violent attacks by armed anti-independence militias. UNHCR still had three staff holed up in the U.N. compound in Dili, East Timor, who have been unable to travel to other parts of the island or even move about the city. Around 400 local people also have crammed into the compound seeking refugee, and an additional 1000 have taken shelter in a nearby school. "The displacement in Dili (since the referendum) is estimated at more than 30,000," UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told a press briefing September 7. "God only knows how many people are displaced on the island. There are all kinds of figures cited, but we don't really know how many people there are." He said UNHCR has arranged for "a couple of trucks to be brought with police escort from a warehouse to the compound" to deliver food to the people in the compound. Before the referendum, UNHCR estimated that 40,000 people had been displaced. Another 25,000 people were reported to have crossed into West Timor since the vote when a large majority of East Timorese chose independence. Local sources said that thousands of people who had sought refuge in the Dili Bishop's residence were forcibly bused from that location after militias overran the complex. UNHCR said it was extremely alarmed by the reports, but could not confirm them independently.
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