Dili calm as migrant exodus subsides

Dili calm as migrant exodus subsides

JAKARTA (JP): A tense calm settled yesterday on Dili, East
Timor, as the massive exodus of the past two weeks showed signs
of subsiding.

Resident Manuel V. Carrascalao told The Jakarta Post by
telephone from the provincial capital that many shops were closed
and some housing complexes were deserted.

Even daily activities in the governor's office continued to be
disrupted. "It's a sad fact that civil servants fled, too," the
former legislator said. Many government employees, he added, were
non-Timorese who were assigned to the province.

Manuel, the younger brother of former East Timor governor
Mario Vegas Carrascalao, said troops were on guard at almost
every corner of the city.

A staff member at the Law, Human Rights and Justice Foundation
(Yayasan HAK) in Dili, who asked not to be named, gave a similar
account.

"It's calm but tense, with security apparatus apparently
checking everybody's identification cards," he told the Post when
contacted by phone.

Manuel said people were still leaving the province but the
number appeared to be abating.

In the past two weeks, he added, nonnatives of the province
have crammed onto ships headed to Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi,
buses to the West Nusa Tenggara capital of Kupang and Surabaya,
East Java.

The exodus was sparked by rumors there would be a massive
demonstration Friday in which antiintegrationists would proclaim
their independence from Indonesia and start to flush out migrants
from the province.

July 17 marks the official anniversary of the date East Timor
was integrated into Indonesia in 1976 through Law No. 7 and
Decree No. 19.

"Rumors (of impending violence) became rampant... I deplore
the military intelligence's performance (in not halting the
rumors)," said Manuel, who heads the Reconciliation and Unity
Movement of the East Timorese People.

No official data has been compiled on the number of people who
have fled, but anecdotal reports vary from a few thousand to as
many as 60,000.

Manuel said he had also received reports of harassment by men
dressed like "ninjas" who came to residents' house at night.

He said he reported the incidents to the local military chief.

Separately in Jakarta, a native East Timorese and member of
the National Commission on Human Rights, Clementino dos Reis
Amaral, agreed the people who fled were mostly traders from other
provinces.

"They mostly worked selling basic commodities," he said.

He said he had received persistent reports of rumors that non-
Timorese would be forced out on Friday and that there would be a
major clash between pro- and antiintegration supporters.

Meanwhile, Mario Vegas Carrascalao slammed the security
apparatus and local government officials for failing to provide
security to the general public in the province.

"It is something beyond my expectations," Carrascalao told
journalists before speaking at a seminar on peaceful solutions to
East Timor problem held by the newly established Solidamor non-
governmental organization yesterday. (aan)