DATE=9/15/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA REFUGEES (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253896
BYLINE=BRONWYN CURRAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: As thousands of East Timorese continue to flee
the besieged territory, some refugees have fled to
Jakarta and gone into hiding in the capital. Many are
living in a constant state of fear as rumors that
members of pro-Indonesian militia groups - believed to
be responsible for the recent violence - have gone to
Jakarta to look for pro-independence supporters.
Bronwyn Curran caught up with one activist, who has
moved four times since arriving in Jakarta just over a
week ago.
TEXT: This woman Eva, who spoke to us on condition
that her real name not be used, fled East Timor's
capital Dili the day the independence vote was
announced. Fearing for her safety, a foreign
journalist took Eva and six of her colleagues with him
on his company's chartered evacuation flight out of
East Timor. Initially he hid them in his residence in
central Jakarta.
But that residence is next to a compound heavily
guarded by Indonesian soldiers. The group of
independence supporters became alarmed when one of the
soldiers appeared to be watching the house.
//EVA ACT///
The place is the place of soldier, Indonesian
soldiers. One day the owner say one spy, they look one
spy. Somebody is spying outside his own house and he
was looking into that house -- the owner's house. So
the owner (of the)house say that you must, you with
your friend must go out for some time to another house
to rent, to stay there one day or two days to save
ourselves from the spying.
//END ACT///
The group has since split up and fanned out across
Jakarta, changing location every few days.
Eva says they are frightened members of the Kopassus
Special Forces -- an elite military force operating in
East Timor -- have come to Jakarta. She says members
of Aitarak - one of the pro-Indonesian militia groups
- have also entered the capital. Both groups she says
are in search of independence supporters who have fled
the territory.
//EVA ACT///
They want to kill everyone who want to be independence
members because Indonesia already lose. So they must
kill everybody who want to struggle to be
independence.
//END ACT//
Five of Eva's colleagues who stayed behind in Dili are
missing. She does not know if they have been killed or
are in hiding. Eva's widowed mother and siblings
believe they too are targets of the militias, because
their late father was an independence fighter.
She has had contact with some of her brothers, now in
refugee camps in West Timor. But there has been no
word from her mother and other family members, who
were among those seeking shelter at Bishop Belo's Dili
residence when militias attacked, killing around 30
people.
//EVA ACT//
My family's there because you know in the Bishop
Belo's area that is my place, I stay there, with my
all family there so all of my family must refuge in
the Bishop Belo's house, including my own family, my
brother, my aunt, my uncle and my nephew also, they
all of them, they were around 13 persons, 13 or 14
persons is hiding, be refuge in the Bishop Belo house.
//END ACT//
Eva has left Jakarta temporarily to stay with a sister
in a town outside the capital. But when she returns
she will be looking for another place to stay. She has
discovered the place she was living in when she gave
this interview lies between the military intelligence
headquarters, and Indonesia's national intelligence
co-ordination center. (signed)
NEB/BC/GC/PLM
15-Sep-1999 06:41 AM EDT (15-Sep-1999 1041 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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