A sister's search for beloved brother<\/p>\n
By Stephen Collinson<\/p>\n
DILI, East Timor (AFP): Amalia Rodrigues walks the ruined
\nstreets of Dili day after day, desperately searching for the
\nyoung brother she fears was cut down in a hail of militia
\nbullets.<\/p>\n
Behind her wide smile of welcome lies an agony of family
\nseparation, death and uncertainty that aid workers say thousands
\nof East Timorese are living with.<\/p>\n
\"I think he must be dead,\" she says, blinking quickly as tears
\nwell up in her eyes. \"But I keep looking for him every day. I
\nheard he may have gone to Tibar,\" a small town close to Dili, she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Amalia, 23, was separated from her 15-year-old brother
\nMarcello when militia fighters fired on a crowd in early
\nSeptember, turning the seafront near the home of Bishop Carlos
\nBelo into a shooting range after East Timor voted for
\nindependence.<\/p>\n
With her parents and three sisters, Amalia then spent several
\nnights huddling in their Dili home before they were finally
\ndiscovered by members of the militias bent on emptying the city
\nof its population and destroying everything in their way.<\/p>\n
As the family fled in terror, Amalia's sister-in-law Marcella
\nwas shot dead.<\/p>\n
\"I try to sleep at night but I have the picture of my sister-
\nin-law in my head,\" she says. \"We pray for her and my brother
\nevery night.\"<\/p>\n
As she struggles to cope with her own emotions, Amalia has had
\nto assume the burden of responsibility for the family.<\/p>\n
Her traumatized parents spend day after day weeping for their
\nlost son.<\/p>\n
After Marcella's death, the family joined the exodus of
\nrefugees leaving Dili. In Baucau, East Timor's second city, they
\nescaped death again when gunmen fired into a crowd, killing two
\npeople.<\/p>\n
It was only when international peacekeepers drove militias out
\nof the capital that the family returned to their wrecked home.<\/p>\n
\"We are happy they came but we fear that the militias are
\nstill hiding,\" Amalia said.<\/p>\n
She is still haunted by visions of the frenzied, bloodshot
\neyes of the gunmen that fired at her and her brother. \"They had
\nbad blood in their eyes.\"<\/p>\n
Despite her grief, Amalia's spirit has not been crushed. When
\nshe speaks of her hopes for the nation East Timor is soon to
\nbecome, her eyes light up with hope and determination.<\/p>\n
\"We will have independence. We voted for it, we must have it,\"
\nshe says defiantly.<\/p>\n
Amalia's suffering is mirrored all over East Timor. At the
\nheadquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in
\nDili, more than 250 people queue every morning at a tracing
\ncenter for missing people.<\/p>\n
They write their names on a small form and a message telling
\nmissing relatives how to contact them.<\/p>\n
Batches of cards are taken to camps in West Timor, where
\naround 250,000 East Timorese fled.<\/p>\n
\"This is one of our classic activities,\" said ICRC delegate
\nRuth Kottmann.<\/p>\n
\"Refugees who reach the center are allowed a few minutes on a
\nsatellite telephone to tell relatives in other parts of Indonesia
\nthat they are alive.<\/p>\n
Amalia says she will contact the center in case they can help
\nher find her missing brother.<\/p>\n
She looks forward to the day when she can go back to her final
\nyear of English studies at Dili university and become a teacher.
\n\"I will look for him until I know whether he is dead or alive.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-sisters-search-for-beloved-brother-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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