DATE=12/20/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N-H-C-R / EAST TIMOR (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257328
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The U-N Refugee Agency is speeding up its
efforts to provide badly-needed shelter material for
tens-of-thousands of people in East Timor. Lisa
Schlein reports from Geneva.
TEXT: The U-N Refugee Agency says its shelter program
in East Timor is moving along according to schedule.
So far, the agency says it has provided plastic
sheeting and other basic material for hundreds-of-
thousands of people so they can protect themselves
during the current rainy season.
U-N-H-C-R Spokesman, Jacques Franquin, says the agency
has begun providing shelter kits containing house-
repair material.
/// FRANQUIN ACT ///
We are trying to bring in Timor corrugated iron
sheets, timbers, nails all that is necessary for
people to rebuild one room of their home and be
able to live in, I would say, correct
conditions.
/// END ACT ///
Over the next three months, the U-N Refugee Agency
will distribute up to six-thousand shelter kits to
refugees returning to East Timor. The program will
eventually supply up to 35-thousand shelter kits to
many thousands of homeless people throughout the
territory.
The cost of the shelter program is estimated at 27-
million U-S dollars. Mr. Franquin says it is so
expensive because all the materials have to be
imported. He says nothing can be produced locally.
Furthermore, he says practically all the homes in East
Timor have to be completely rebuilt.
/// 2nd FRANQUIN ACT ///
The whole country has been completely
devastated. Some villages do not even exist
anymore because everything has been put on fire.
This is assistance for 600-thousand people which
is, of course, a lot and requires a lot of
material.
/// END ACT ///
/// OPT /// Mr. Franquin says the program in East
Timor is relatively cheap when compared to Kosovo,
where shelter material is much more expensive. /// END
OPT ///
Mr. Franquin says the big and extremely costly job of
rebuilding houses and reconstructing public buildings
throughout East Timor will begin in the coming three
or four-months. He says this task will be done under
the supervision of the U-N agency administering the
territory. (SIGNED)
NEB/LS/GE/RAE
20-Dec-1999 09:55 AM EDT (20-Dec-1999 1455 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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