DATE=9/28/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N / TIMOR AID (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-254398
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations Refugee Agency, U-N-H-
C-R, says it hopes to gain access soon to tens of
thousands of East Timorese refugees who have fled
or been deported to West Timor. Lisa Schlein in
Geneva reports the agency says it has made some
progress with the authorities in West Timor in
persuading them that United Nations aid workers
be allowed to assist the East Timorese refugees.
TEXT: East Timorese refugees reportedly are
living in squalid conditions in overcrowded
makeshift camps in West Timor. United Nations
and private aid agencies have had little access
to the refugees. They reportedly are without
protection from marauding militias.
U-N-H-C-R spokesman Kris Janowski says West
Timorese authorities told a team of United
Nations aid workers there were an estimated 230-
thousand East Timorese refugees in West Timor.
The authorities said about 60 percent of them
wanted to go back to East Timor.
///JANOWSKI ACT///
Of course, we cannot vouch for that figure
and we certainly have a very strong
suspicion that many of these people will
have been taken to West Timor against their
will. And, the key issue now is to gain
access to them.
///END ACT///
On Friday, the U-N aid workers met with the
governor of West Timor to get his cooperation for
the start of an emergency assistance program for
the refugees.
Currently the U-N Refugee Agency has five staff
people in West Timor. Mr. Janowski says more are
on the way, including a number of protection
officers who specialize in human rights and
refugee rights. Meanwhile, he says the aid
operation in East Timor is gathering momentum.
He notes two flights a day arrive in Dili
bringing in mostly emergency shelter material.
He says shelter is critical because most of the
towns in East Timor were heavily destroyed by the
militias.
///2ND JANOWSKI ACT///
We also are working with other agencies in
Dili on contingencies for a mass return of
displaced people from the hills to the
town. What is happening at the moment is
there is still militia activity, there is
still a good 15-hundred military in the
town. It's still extremely volatile. So
people venture out to Dili from the hills
during the day. But they are too fearful
to remain in the town overnight and they go
back to the hills at night.
///END ACT///
Mr. Janowski says the United Nations is setting
up a system to register people who return to East
Timor. He says this is crucial in determining
how many people are missing and how many have
actually gone or been taken to West Timor.
(Signed)
NEB/LS/GE/KL
28-Sep-1999 09:12 AM EDT (28-Sep-1999 1312 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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