DATE=10/17/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=TIMOR AID
NUMBER=5-44534
BYLINE=GARY THOMAS
DATELINE=DILI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The vote for independence in the territory of East
Timor was followed by a wave of violence by militias
bitterly opposed to breaking away from Indonesia.
Thousands of families were separated as people fled for
safety. As correspondent Gary Thomas reports, one of the
initial tasks now is helping families find each other.
TEXT: At the Red Cross building in Dili, a crowd gathers
every day looking for hope. Some scan the bulletin board,
looking for a message. Others stand in line to make a
telephone call. All have one common goal: to find and get
in touch with their lost relatives.
Jose -- he does not want to give any other name -- is
calling the other side of the island of Timor to find his
brother. He is using the Red Cross satellite telephone
because such phones are now the only ones that work in East
Timor.
// JOSE ON TELEPHONE //
He says that when the fighting started, his brother headed
west, while he went to the safety of the hills. He says he
knows his brother is somewhere in Kupang.
Hundreds-of-thousands of people fled the chaos of early
September, when pro-Jakarta militias went on a rampage that
decimated East Timor's infrastructure. An estimated 260-
thousand people crossed into Indonesian West Timor. U-N
officials estimate 400-thousand more are missing and
presumed to be in hiding, too frightened to leave their
sanctuaries in the hills.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, the I-C-R-C,
has set up a tracing center in Dili to help reunite
separated families. Red Cross spokeswoman Amanda Williamson
says the agency is acting as a message hub for families in
both East and West Timor.
// WILLIAMSON ACT //
They are allowed here to write what we call a Red
Cross message. It is a very short note to say hello,
I am in Dili, I am safe and well. And we collect
those and then we send them over to our office in
Kupang and they then distribute them around the camps
there.
// END ACT //
Delio Amadeu Correia is waiting to use the phone. He is
trying to find a way to get his brother back to Dili from
Kupang on a refugee flight. But he says the militia will
not let his brother go, and is trying to press him into
service.
// CORREIA LANG ACT //
Ms. Williamson said most of the refugees who come to the Red
Cross actually know where their relatives are, or least have
an idea of what area they might be in. She says most are in
the West Timor towns of Kupang or Atmabau.
// WILLIAMSON ACT //
So if people of course have a phone number -- and it
is amazing how many people have a small piece of
paper with a phone number of their relatives, mainly
in Australia, for example -- then they can make a
satellite call. And around 30 to 40-people every day
are managing to be put back in contact with their
relatives in that way.
// END ACT //
But there are still thousands of people unaccounted for.
Fear continues to keep families apart, as only a trickle of
people have returned to find there is little to return to.
(SIGNED)
NEB/GPT/RAE
17-Oct-1999 12:20 PM EDT (17-Oct-1999 1620 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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