DATE=10/5/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=EAST TIMOR - FOOD (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-254652
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations and aid workers in East
Timor have launched a massive operation to distribute
food to thousands of families in the capital Dili. As
Patricia Nunan reports, the drive comes as refugees
begin to filter back into the capital after weeks
spent hiding in the hills from anti-independence
militia groups.
TEXT: Hundreds of people began lining up at six food
distribution sites, just before daylight in the East
Timorese capital Dili. There, each family is to
receive a 50 kilogram bag of rice -- enough to feed
five people for a month.
Patience began to wear thin in the line outside the
burned-down remains of the home of East Timorese
spiritual leader Bishop Carlos Belo -- until a nun
from a local convent convinced people to kneel and
give thanks for the food they were about to receive.
Bishop Belo, who won the 1996 Nobel peace prize for
his efforts to improve human rights in East Timor says
he hopes to return to the territory Wednesday. The
Bishop was among the hundreds of thousands of people
forced to flee their homes when anti-independence
militias backed by the Indonesian military swept
through East Timor.
The militias are believed to have killed hundreds --
perhaps thousands of people last month, in a two-week
campaign of terror.
The anti-independence militias were reacting to the
United Nations' announcement that the majority of East
Timorese voted for the territory to break free of
Indonesian rule in a special referendum held August
30th.
Aid workers say the 45 thousand people in Dili are not
starving -- but they have not had sufficient amounts
of food for the past three weeks. They have already
handed out 700 tons of rice in the capital alone.
Sanjay Sojwal, a spokesman for WorldVision, one of the
relief groups involved in the drive, says another
priority is to reach refugees hiding in East Timor's
interior.
///SOJWAL ACT ///
We need all the help we can get from different
agencies that are here, including the U-N, to be able
to provide food not just for the people around Dili
and in Dili, but the large numbers --we need access to
people further away. Because the further away they are
from the central areas, the more needy they will be.
///END ACT ///
The food distribution operation is a joint effort by
U-N relief agencies and private relief groups,
including CARE and WorldVision. Aid workers intend to
launch another operation to distribute plastic
sheeting, cooking pots and blankets in Dili on Friday.
NEB/PN/FC/PLM
05-Oct-1999 01:14 AM EDT (05-Oct-1999 0514 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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