Belo flees as East Timor sinks deeper into violence

JAKARTA (JP): Nobel colaureate Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo arrived in Australia on Tuesday after being airlifted out of his strife-torn homeland under an assumed name.

Belo's escape marked the continuing violence which has spiraled out of control. Thousands more flocked the provincial police headquarters compound in Dili and thousands others streamed into East Nusa Tenggara, the western border of the former Portuguese colony, to seek safety.

Dozens of expatriate East Timorese waited for the bishop to arrive on an evacuation flight at the north Australian city of Darwin, only to be told that Belo was still in East Timor.

Twenty minutes later, officials announced he was in fact on the Australian air force C-130 Hercules, traveling under the name Louis Rochetta.

"Bishop Belo was on the flight and he's on the ground now in Australia. He's safe and well," UN spokeswoman Jenny Grant told Reuters.

Belo, the corecipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, was forced to flee Dili on Monday after pro-Jakarta militias attacked his residence, leaving at least 25 people dead. About 5,000 East Timorese had taken refuge in Belo's house and gardens, hoping to use his reputation as an "untouchable" to avoid militia attacks.

But the bishop had to be airlifted to Baucau, 90 kilometers east of East Timor's capital Dili, after militias overran his residence.

Belo told the Catholic newspaper Avvenire on Monday that he believed what was going on in East Timor was "a very real attack planned around a table by Indonesian Military".

He said what was happening in the former Portuguese colony was "not a civil war", but was part of a plan organized by Indonesian military "who use the militias like pawns".

Denise Dauphinais, the regional coordinator of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), said Belo had requested his evacuation from Baucau, where the UN compound came under severe militia attack earlier on Tuesday.

In its statement, the UN said the attack took place at approximately 10 a.m. local time (0200 GMT).

"Automatic weapon fire was directed at the compound for approximately 15 minutes," the UN said.

Cars

With telephone lines falling dead, tension remained in Dili, where a group of people set ablaze about 30 cars belonging to UNAMET in protest of the mission's alleged bias in handling the self-determination referendum. East Timorese overwhelmingly voted for independence on Aug. 30.

A witness, Mardianto, told Antara that he saw dozens of proautonomy youths come at noon to a UNAMET garage in Colmera subdistrict, where the cars were kept.

"Less than 10 minutes later, smoke came out of the garage and explosions were heard, possibly from fuel tanks which caught on fire," he said.

He said the angry youths, armed with rifles, swords and knives, denounced UNAMET staff members, who they accused of dividing the East Timorese. After committing the attack, the young people took to the streets in a motorcade.

Pro-Jakarta militiamen also took over UN cars which were parked on streets. They sprayed one of the cars, a silver Land Rover, with paint and wrote: "Autonomy Yes".

At about the same time, another group of youths attacked and burned the School of Teachers Training building at the Timor Timur University campus. Windows were smashed during the attack.

Military troops blocked the street linking the university and UNAMET Headquarters in Balide following the fire.

A refugee said he saw a number of buildings being burned on his evacuation trip. "The militiamen were seen looting goods from a burning house in Colmera and loading them on a military truck," he said.

A group of militiamen joined a gunslinging spree on a motorbike ride across town. Gunshots were still heard until late in the afternoon.

An Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi journalist fleeing riot-hit Dili, Hazairin Sitepu, told The Jakarta Post that the situation there was worsening with the arrival of the Besi Merah Putih (Red and White Iron) militia group from Bobonaro, some 150 kilometers west of Dili.

"They are among the merciless militiamen who resort to arson and abduction," he said upon his arrival in Ujungpandang on Tuesday along with 10 expatriates.

He protested the government's lack of effort to help refugees, saying people escaping East Timor by air were charged between Rp 450,000 and Rp 700,000 (between US$56 and $87.50).

In Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, Governor Piet A. Tallo said on Tuesday nearly 43,000 East Timorese had entered the border town of Atambua. He said the number was expected to increase.

Tallo told Antara that the displaced arrivals were spread to Belu, North Central Timor, South Central Timor, Kupang, Alor and East Flores regencies.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it dispatched two standby emergency teams, one of which was on its way to West Timor. The other team is in the pipeline, pending an improvement in the security condition of East Timor, the spokesman for the Geneva-based body, Kris Janowski, said.

Many of refugees who arrived in Atambua were forced to sleep in the open air due to a lack of tents. The refugees are facing a shortage of clean water.

Head of Kupang's social affairs ministry office, Bambang Subroto, said his office and all related state agencies were ready to serve the refugees, including providing meals and health services.

He complained, however, about the absence of financial aid from the central government as of Tuesday.

In Yogyakarta and Semarang, dozens of East Timorese proindependence students fled the area for their hometowns following threats from their prointegration counterparts. (27/44/har/yac/edt/emf/amd)