Condition of 5,100 Timorese refugees in Suai 'worrisome'
Condition of 5,100 Timorese refugees in Suai 'worrisome'
JAKARTA (JP): The health of over 5,100 villagers who have
taken refuge in the Suai town of East Timor's Covalima regency
could deteriorate due to a lack of sanitary facilities in their
makeshift shelters, a local priest said on Sunday.
"There are too many people, their condition is worrisome...
soon there'll be diarrhea," Catholic priest Francisco Soares in
Suai told The Jakarta Post by phone.
Six people have died, including four who suffered gunshot
injuries, since the influx of refugees to Suai began on Jan. 25,
according to Francisco.
The refugees are villagers from Covalima regency, some 300
kilometers south of Dili, who were reportedly terrorized and
forced to evacuate by military-backed civilians armed with
shotguns who arrived from neighboring Ainaro regency.
Despite guarantees of protection from Covalima regency
administration and its security authority, Francisco on Sunday
claimed some forms of terror were still felt, such as whenever a
group of armed men came to check on refugees, saying they were
looking for weapons.
The refugees are staying in a half-constructed church, a
nearby school and tents set up in Suai, he said.
"All they can do now is wait in uncertainty," Francisco said.
He said he did not know if the latest refugee crisis was
sparked by the recent astonishing announcement from the
government that it would let go of the troubled territory by 2000
if the wide-ranging autonomy it offered to the province -- as a
final solution to the 23-year old dispute -- was rejected in the
ongoing UN-Indonesia-Portugal tripartite talks.
Also on Sunday the Associated Press cited reports that two
Indonesian envoys arrived in Lisbon Saturday to set up a
diplomatic post, fulfilling an agreement reached during ongoing
negotiations with Portugal over the province.
Ruzlan Jenie and Aris Oegrosono were to open a minimal
diplomatic post known as an "interest section" in Thailand's
embassy later Saturday, after Portuguese envoy Ana Gomes opened a
similar post in the Netherlands embassy in Jakarta, the
Portuguese news agency Lusa reported.
Meanwhile local and national rights activists and reports have
said civilian clashes between "prointegration/proautonomy" groups
and those who were "proindependence/proreferendum" had worsened
with the recent armament of prointegration civilians by the Armed
Forces (ABRI).
However, ABRI spokesman Maj. Gen. Syamsul Ma'arif said last
week that ABRI had indeed armed civilians "but only temporary in
nature" and the move was intended to enable civilians to protect
themselves from groups of troublemakers.
Two deaths were recorded by Kompas daily last week: Abel
Martins, 45, a teacher in Bobonaro regency's Ribabo village, and
police sergeant I Made Koji of Baucau were shot dead.
Another related development of the alarming violence was
reported on Sunday. Bisnis Indonesia daily quoted the director
general of primary and secondary education, Indrajati Sidhi, as
saying that at least 250 Indonesian school teachers from outside
East Timor had applied for transfers from the troubled territory,
saying they feared for their lives.
"There are currently at least 250 migrant school teachers in
East Timor who have requested transfers to other regions," he
said. He added that applicants had cited terror, physical attacks
and threats as reasons for their request to leave.
"There are even groups of people who went to the house of a
migrant teacher, threatening the teacher with taking over his
house and possessions," Indrajati said.
Final
With observers saying trouble in the territory would likely
escalate, comments of pros and cons on the government's stance on
letting go of the province kept pouring in on Sunday.
Regarding the government's offer of wide-ranging autonomy, the
Ministry of Home Affairs' Director General of Public
Administration and Regional Autonomy Ryaas Rasyid said autonomy
would exclude the affairs of defense and security, the judiciary
system, monetary and foreign affairs.
"That's it, the authority over other matters will be East
Timor's and the concept is now being arranged," Ryaas said in the
South Sulawesi's capital of Ujungpandang on Saturday.
But broad autonomy should be taken as a final solution and not
a transition to independence, Ryaas reiterated.
On Sunday, youths grouped in the East Timorese National Front
for Independence distributed leaflets calling for a demonstration
in Dili on Monday. They plan to start marching from Santa Cruz
cemetery, where scores of proindependence youths were shot dead
in 1991, Antara reported.
In Jakarta on Sunday, opposition figure Sri Bintang Pamungkas
said he believed the release of jailed charismatic East Timorese
leader Alexandre Jose "Xanana" Gusmao could help defuse tension
in East Timor.
At a party function, also Sunday, popular chairman of the
National Mandate Party (PAN) Amien Rais said the only way to
settle the East Timor issue was a referendum after two or three
years to better prepare the populace.
On Saturday, two leading opposition figures, whose parties
along with PAN stand a good chance at success in the June general
election, said they opposed independence for East Timor.
Megawati Soekarnoputri, the leader of the popular faction of
the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), and Abdurrahman "Gus Dur"
Wahid, chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Muslim organization and
backer of the People's Awakening Party (PKB), said East Timor
should remain a part of Indonesia. The current transitional
government, Megawati said, had no authority to issue such a
policy.
On Sunday Kompas daily quoted some civil servants in East
Timor as being cautious over the government's announcement. One
said he would like the province to remain part of Indonesia but
wondered whether the civil servants would be accepted and whether
they could keep their jobs. (30/aan/01)