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USIS Washington 
File

14 September 1999

Text: UNHCR Briefing on E. Timor, Liberia, Kosovo Sept.14

(U.N. agency expresses alarm at E. Timor deportations)(1430)
Evidence of mass deportations in East Timor is causing alarm at the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). According to notes from a
September 14 briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, spokesman Kris Janowski
says the U.N. refugee agency is adamant that citizens shouldn't be
forced to leave East Timor; and those taken against their will already
must be allowed to return.
Some Timorese already displaced have told UNHCR officials that they
are afraid in the "atmosphere of total intimidation which prevails
there."
The precise number of people who have been displaced in the violence
is unknown, according to the UNHCR spokesman, but it could climb into
the hundreds of thousands.
Following is the text of the UNHCR briefing notes:
(begin text) 
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Briefing Notes
14 September 1999
Kris Janowski - Public Information Section
This is an uncorrected summary of what was said by the UNHCR
spokesperson at today's Palais des Nations press briefing.
1) - Timor
UNHCR is gravely alarmed by persistent reports and indeed mounting
evidence of deportation of East Timorese to West Timor and cases of
separation of men from women and children. Reports from various
sources speak of families being separated while being forcibly taken
to West Timor. They speak of anti-independence militias hunting down
supporters of independence in West Timor's capital Kupang and the
border town of Atambua which has been overrun by militias. UNHCR is
adamant that no-one should be taken away from East Timor against their
will and that all those already deported must be allowed to return.
Some of the 13,000 internally displaced assembled in four sites in
Dili - the harbour, the regional police headquarters, the government
compound and the military headquarters - told UNHCR they were
terrified after being told by the Indonesian military that they would
be taken to West Timor or elsewhere in Indonesia. They say they had
been assembled in the four sites by the military. They want to stay in
Dili but they are too terrified to say it aloud in the atmosphere of
total intimidation which prevails there. Some said before the arrival
of the Security Council delegation last Saturday they were ordered to
wear bandannas with Indonesian colors to pose as opponents of
independence.
The overall degree of displacement in East Timor is not known but it
could go into hundreds of thousands. According to bits and pieces of
information trickling through from the town of Dare not far from Dili,
some 30,000 are sheltering there in desperate conditions. But many
more pass through Dare and seek refuge in the mountains.
After more than 1,500 displaced people from the UNAMET compound were
flown to Australia along with most UN staff, the compound was looted,
office equipment and computers were carted away and vehicles were
trashed. Huge columns of smoke could be seen rising from two parts of
Dili and there was a large number of armed militia in the city center.
One UNHCR staff remains in Dili with 9 other UN international workers
who have now moved to the Australian consulate compound, which has
electricity and water.
UNHCR is grateful to the Australian Government for giving refuge to
the 1,500 at our request. Their status is similar to that granted to
Kosovo Albanians evacuated from FYR of Macedonia last spring. Darwin
has now become a major logistical hub. UNHCR has 200 square meters of
warehouse space with several planeloads of food and other emergency
supplies which can be flown into Dili on a few hours' notice.




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