Military

ROME - The United Nations World Food Programme today announced it is preparing to air drop emergency food into East Timor, using for the first time the innovative "snow drop" technology that will deliver food safely and efficiently to the tens of thousands of desperately hungry people hiding in the mountains.

WFP will send a Hercules C-130 cargo plane with the "snow drop" equipment to Darwin, Australia, as well as some 70 tons of high-energy biscuits. The biscuits will be packed in about 350,000 plastic packages containing 200 grams each. The packages are shaped into two "wings" which help the packages float and circle as they fall through the air, ensuring a soft landing.

The 200-gram ration contains 900 calories, which represents almost half of a daily caloric requirement. The biscuits, which are fortified with vitamins and minerals, are targetted at the tens of thousands of East Timorese who fled into the nearby mountains to escape political violence.

"WFP has tested extensively the snow drop system, which was developed in partnership with Safair. After the last test some eight weeks ago, the equipment was certified by the civil aviation authorities in South Africa. Under the present circumstances of extreme insecurity in East Timor, it looks like the best solution for getting food to a lot of people quickly and safely," said Ramiro Lopes da Silva, director of transport and logistics for WFP.

WFP is meanwhile contracting commercial helicopters for the delivery of food aid to the internally displaced people of East Timor as well as to move relief teams swiftly to remote areas of the territory.

WFP is also assessing the conditions for traditional air drops, which among other conditions require a ground team to manage a clearly designated drop zone.

WFP and the UN Assistance Mission to East Timor (UNAMET) have agreed to run a joint logistics cell to provide service for the whole relief community once the Indonesian authorities have granted permission for the aircraft to be brought in, WFP officials said. The authorities have said they are waiting for security conditions in the territory to improve.

The helicopter operation, to be run out of the East Timorese capital of Dili, will deliver food aid to at least 30,000 people who ran into the hills "taking little or nothing with them," according to Angela Van Rynbach, Deputy Director of Asia for WFP.

"We are getting reports that they have nothing to eat but bananas, yams and roots," Van Rynbach said, noting that the steep drop in temperature at night is further undermining their physical condition.

WFP will start deliveries of rice for an additional 120,000 people in East Timor now that Indonesian authorities have promised that 1,300 metric tons of WFP's rice will be released from army safe-guarding when security conditions allow.

Under this same assurance from Indonesian authorities, an additional 5,040 tons of rice will be positioned for delivery to East Timor, again once safety has improved.

The food aid agency, the largest in the world, is preparing a larger-scale emergency operation involving the distribution of rice, cooking oil, pulses, maize and blended food.

Van Rynbach noted that the food crisis in East Timor has long-term implications because the next planting season will be jeopardized if farmers out of fear or constraints by the militias do not return to their fields by mid-October.

For a photograph of the "snow drop" packages, please contact Sherri Dougherty at 00-39-06-6513-2630.

WFP is the United Nations' front-line agency in the fight against global hunger. Last year, its relief workers fed 75 million people, including most of the world's refugees. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, WFP has food aid operations in 80 countries.