
20 September 1999
Text: ICRC Launches E. Timor Relief Effort
(Red Cross delegates find 90,000 displaced in hardship) (480)
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) began a relief
mission into violence-wracked East Timor on September 17. The ICRC is
flying in food and other supplies from an aid base established on
Java.
In a September 18 news release, the ICRC acknowledged the operation
has been troubled by problems on the ground, such as inadequate
support for unloading and transporting supplies.
The operation comes after an ICRC advance team had surveyed the
situation around Dili earlier last week. The team found about 90,000
displaced people surviving under difficult circumstances in Dare,
about 10 kilometers from Dili.
The news release also reports that the team found Dili to be a
"devastated" city, burned, looted and tense.
Following is the text of the ICRC news release:
(begin text)
18 September 1999
Press Release
ICRC launches relief operation in East Timor
Geneva (ICRC) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
began an operation on Friday to assist the victims of the violence in
East Timor. Two aircraft flew into Dili with two tons of rice and 11
tons of high-protein food aboard. They arrived from Surabaya, on the
island of Java, where the ICRC has in recent days set up a logistics
base with stocks of food, medicine and other essential supplies.
The operation continued today with a third flight to Dili. The
organization is encountering logistical difficulties in the East
Timorese capital such as inadequate means of unloading the aircraft
and a lack of vehicles.
Meanwhile, the two ICRC delegates who returned to East Timor on 14
September to assess the situation and possible ways of coming to the
aid of the numerous victims went to Dare, about 10 kilometers outside
Dili, where they found some 90,000 displaced people living in the open
in extremely difficult conditions. Logistical problems prevented the
delegates from providing them with more than a small amount of food.
Dili itself has been devastated, with many public and private
buildings looted and burnt to the ground. The atmosphere remains very
tense. The two delegates also went to the city's civilian hospital,
which they found had ceased to function because it had been emptied of
supplies and equipment. Six volunteer nurses have remained to care for
the 37 patients there.
Over the coming days the ICRC will do everything possible to develop
the current operation, with emphasis on dispatching food, medical
supplies and other essential items. To this end a ship is being loaded
in the port of Surabaya and the Norwegian Red Cross is sending a field
hospital. A team of 20 delegates, including medical, sanitation,
logistics and construction experts, is standing by to go to the
territory as soon as conditions permit.
(end text)
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