DATE=11/3/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=EAST TIMOR HUMAN RIGHTS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-255766
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The head of the international peacekeeping
force in East Timor says roughly 80-thousand people
remain unaccounted for after the murderous
rampage by anti-independence militias across the
territory in September. As Patricia Nunan reports from
Jakarta, the peacekeepers are still trying to get a
handle on the numbers of people killed or missing in
the violence.
Text: The head of the international peacekeeping
force Major-General Peter Cosgrove says by his
calculations roughly 10 percent of East Timor's 800
thousand people remain unaccounted for. General
Cosgrove says only 454-thousand East Timorese have
remained in the territory, while at least 265-thousand
have fled to West Timor, other parts of Indonesia or
to Australia.
But the general said he would not classify the 80
thousand figure as missing people. Rather he says
inaccurate counts at refugee camps could be to blame
for the discrepancy.
Roughly 400-thousand people were originally estimated
to have fled East Timor after anti-independence
militia groups, backed by the Indonesian military,
launched a campaign of murder and destruction
throughout the territory in September. Dozens of towns
and villages were destroyed in the rampage which began
after the United Nations announced that most East
Timorese voted to separate from Indonesia in a special
referendum.
Aid workers say thousands of refugees have begun to
trickle back into East Timor since the arrival of the
peacekeeping force in October.
Peacekeepers are also having difficulty determining
exactly how many people were killed in the violence.
International troops have so far officially confirmed
slightly over 100 deaths. However, the peacekeepers
are not mandated to investigate reports of mass graves
found scattered across the territory. Human rights
activists say as many as 200 people may have been
massacred in the town of Suai, 95 kilometers south of
the capital Dili.
Meanwhile officials from the United Nations in New
York have delayed the approval of a probe into the
alleged atrocities in East Timor. The U-N Human Rights
Commissioner Mary Robinson said in mid-September that
investigators would be on the ground in East Timor
"within hours or days." But now the United Nations
says the investigation into atrocities and alleged war
crimes on the part of the Indonesian military will not
be approved before November 15.
NEB/PN/GC/PLM
03-Nov-1999 06:34 AM EDT (03-Nov-1999 1134 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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