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)