DATE=9/14/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=EAST TIMOR EVACUATION (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253843
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations has evacuated its besieged
compound in the East Timorese capital Dili Tuesday.
U-N personnel have been trapped in the compound for
almost two weeks, as pro-Indonesia militia groups
rampaged through East Timor, looting, killing and
forcing hundreds of thousands to flee. As Patricia
Nunan reports from Jakarta, most of the U-N staff and
13 hundred refugees have begun to be evacuated to the
northern Australian city of Darwin.
Text: Just a dozen U-N staff will remain behind in the
East Timorese capital Dili. The head of the U-N
mission in East Timor, Ian Martin said there was no
direct threat against the 110 U-N personnel in Dili.
But the United Nations could no longer guarantee the
safety of the 13 hundred refugees who had taken
shelter in a schoolyard next to the U-N compound.
Some U-N officials had previously resisted being
evacuated because they believed the refugees would be
massacred if they left. Top level
U-N officials have also said it would be a disaster if
the United Nations pulled out of East Timor entirely.
The first of what is expected to be over a dozen
evacuation flights has arrived in the northern
Australian city of Darwin.
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