Belo flees as East Timor sinks deeper into violence<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Nobel colaureate Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes
\nBelo arrived in Australia on Tuesday after being airlifted out of
\nhis strife-torn homeland under an assumed name.<\/p>\n
Belo's escape marked the continuing violence which has
\nspiraled out of control. Thousands more flocked the provincial
\npolice headquarters compound in Dili and thousands others
\nstreamed into East Nusa Tenggara, the western border of the
\nformer Portuguese colony, to seek safety.<\/p>\n
Dozens of expatriate East Timorese waited for the bishop to
\narrive on an evacuation flight at the north Australian city of
\nDarwin, only to be told that Belo was still in East Timor.<\/p>\n
Twenty minutes later, officials announced he was in fact on
\nthe Australian air force C-130 Hercules, traveling under the name
\nLouis Rochetta.<\/p>\n
\"Bishop Belo was on the flight and he's on the ground now in
\nAustralia. He's safe and well,\" UN spokeswoman Jenny Grant told
\nReuters.<\/p>\n
Belo, the corecipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, was
\nforced to flee Dili on Monday after pro-Jakarta militias attacked
\nhis residence, leaving at least 25 people dead. About 5,000 East
\nTimorese had taken refuge in Belo's house and gardens, hoping to
\nuse his reputation as an \"untouchable\" to avoid militia attacks.<\/p>\n
But the bishop had to be airlifted to Baucau, 90 kilometers
\neast of East Timor's capital Dili, after militias overran his
\nresidence.<\/p>\n
Belo told the Catholic newspaper Avvenire on Monday that he
\nbelieved what was going on in East Timor was \"a very real attack
\nplanned around a table by Indonesian Military\".<\/p>\n
He said what was happening in the former Portuguese colony was
\n\"not a civil war\", but was part of a plan organized by Indonesian
\nmilitary \"who use the militias like pawns\".<\/p>\n
Denise Dauphinais, the regional coordinator of the United
\nNations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), said Belo had requested
\nhis evacuation from Baucau, where the UN compound came under
\nsevere militia attack earlier on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In its statement, the UN said the attack took place at
\napproximately 10 a.m. local time (0200 GMT).<\/p>\n
\"Automatic weapon fire was directed at the compound for
\napproximately 15 minutes,\" the UN said.<\/p>\n
Cars<\/p>\n
With telephone lines falling dead, tension remained in Dili,
\nwhere a group of people set ablaze about 30 cars belonging to
\nUNAMET in protest of the mission's alleged bias in handling the
\nself-determination referendum. East Timorese overwhelmingly voted
\nfor independence on Aug. 30.<\/p>\n
A witness, Mardianto, told Antara that he saw dozens of
\nproautonomy youths come at noon to a UNAMET garage in Colmera
\nsubdistrict, where the cars were kept.<\/p>\n
\"Less than 10 minutes later, smoke came out of the garage and
\nexplosions were heard, possibly from fuel tanks which caught on
\nfire,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said the angry youths, armed with rifles, swords and
\nknives, denounced UNAMET staff members, who they accused of
\ndividing the East Timorese. After committing the attack, the
\nyoung people took to the streets in a motorcade.<\/p>\n
Pro-Jakarta militiamen also took over UN cars which were
\nparked on streets. They sprayed one of the cars, a silver Land
\nRover, with paint and wrote: \"Autonomy Yes\".<\/p>\n
At about the same time, another group of youths attacked and
\nburned the School of Teachers Training building at the Timor
\nTimur University campus. Windows were smashed during the attack.<\/p>\n
Military troops blocked the street linking the university and
\nUNAMET Headquarters in Balide following the fire.<\/p>\n
A refugee said he saw a number of buildings being burned on
\nhis evacuation trip. \"The militiamen were seen looting goods from
\na burning house in Colmera and loading them on a military truck,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
A group of militiamen joined a gunslinging spree on a
\nmotorbike ride across town. Gunshots were still heard until late
\nin the afternoon.<\/p>\n
An Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi journalist fleeing riot-hit
\nDili, Hazairin Sitepu, told The Jakarta Post that the situation
\nthere was worsening with the arrival of the Besi Merah Putih (Red
\nand White Iron) militia group from Bobonaro, some 150 kilometers
\nwest of Dili.<\/p>\n
\"They are among the merciless militiamen who resort to arson
\nand abduction,\" he said upon his arrival in Ujungpandang on
\nTuesday along with 10 expatriates.<\/p>\n
He protested the government's lack of effort to help refugees,
\nsaying people escaping East Timor by air were charged between Rp
\n450,000 and Rp 700,000 (between US$56 and $87.50).<\/p>\n
In Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, Governor Piet A. Tallo said on
\nTuesday nearly 43,000 East Timorese had entered the border town
\nof Atambua. He said the number was expected to increase.<\/p>\n
Tallo told Antara that the displaced arrivals were spread to
\nBelu, North Central Timor, South Central Timor, Kupang, Alor and
\nEast Flores regencies.<\/p>\n
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said
\nit dispatched two standby emergency teams, one of which was on
\nits way to West Timor. The other team is in the pipeline, pending
\nan improvement in the security condition of East Timor, the
\nspokesman for the Geneva-based body, Kris Janowski, said.<\/p>\n
Many of refugees who arrived in Atambua were forced to sleep
\nin the open air due to a lack of tents. The refugees are facing a
\nshortage of clean water.<\/p>\n
Head of Kupang's social affairs ministry office, Bambang
\nSubroto, said his office and all related state agencies were
\nready to serve the refugees, including providing meals and health
\nservices.<\/p>\n
He complained, however, about the absence of financial aid
\nfrom the central government as of Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In Yogyakarta and Semarang, dozens of East Timorese
\nproindependence students fled the area for their hometowns
\nfollowing threats from their prointegration counterparts.
\n(27\/44\/har\/yac\/edt\/emf\/amd)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/belo-flees-as-east-timor-sinks-deeper-into-violence-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}