Humanitarian group evaluates conditions in refugee camps
JAKARTA (JP): Humanitarian workers visited a refugee camp in Atambua on on the border of East Nusa Tenggara and East Timor on Wednesday.
Accompanied by Minister of Social Affairs Justika Baharsyah, the 16-member delegation led by Julia Taft visited some 2,500 refugees sheltered in Haliwen stadium.
Haliwen refugees coordinator Esperansa Lopez told the delegation the refugee camp lacked clean water, cooking utensils and mats, and that there was a threat of disease.
"Some refugees are suffering from malaria, diarrhea and tuberculosis," Lopez told the delegation, which consisted of representatives from the United States, Sweden, Japan, the United Kingdom, Thailand and Australia.
Taft, also an assistant to the U.S state secretary, said humanitarian aid would be dispatched to the refugees through the Indonesian government.
Over 200,000 East Timorese refugees streamed into East Nusa Tenggara to escape violence devastating their homeland following the announcement of the result of the Aug. 30 referendum, in which Indonesia's offer of wide-ranging autonomy was rejected.
President B.J. Habibie, meanwhile, offered East Timorese refugees the opportunity to be relocated to various settlement areas across the country.
After officiating at an evaluation meeting on the implementation of transmigration here on Wednesday, Habibie made an offer of transmigration to Antonio da Silva, an East Timorese refugee who was present at the occasion.
"We are ashamed to be continuously fed and supplied in the camps," Antonio said. Antonio expressed hope that he might be allowed to return to his hometown of Ainaro, East Timor.
The President officiated at ceremonies at various transmigration settlement sites to hand over the sites to 16 governors, whose regions are destinations of transmigrants.
Minister of Transmigration AM Hendropriyono said that during the 1999/2000 fiscal year, 81 transmigration villages housing 27,626 families or 115,149 people had been handed over to the provincial governments in 16 provinces.
Psychological pressure
In East Nusa Tenggara, security officers and medical experts shared their concerns over psychological pressure affecting troops withdrawn from East Timor. They also demanded military leaders in Jakarta take concrete steps in dealing with the matter.
"It is very hard for the boys in the field to get a grip on themselves. Many Indonesian Military and police officers are stressed out, especially so after the ballot results were announced," said a lieutenant colonel in Oekusi, a town of Ambeno.
Ambeno is an East Timor enclave in East Nusa Tenggara.
"We're feel like we're losing a war here. We don't sleep or eat well as we lack supplies," the officer, who requested anonymity, said.
"Do not blame them if they do something shocking," he added.
Middle-ranking officers are also apparently under a lot of stress.
Viqueque military district commander Maj. Nico was reportedly admitted to W.Z. Yohanes General Hospital in Kupang on Sunday after he became upset and punched a window at his house.
Paramedics said Nico was under a lot of stress.
On Sunday, a group of exhausted Mobile Brigade police fired in the air in frustration. Their behavior caused an electricity blackout when their bullets cut through an electricity cable on Jl. Basuki Rahmat in Atambua.
Nuralim Mallapasi, chief of the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia (AMDA) said the soldiers and police officers' disappointment over events was clearly written all over their faces.
"They feel abandon and as though nobody cares about them. They don't even have enough food to support them," Nuralim said. (27/edt)