Militia attacks monastery, injures Baucau bishop

JAKARTA (JP): Increasing pressure to end the bloodshed in East Timor went unheeded on Wednesday, as the violence which has reigned in the territory over the past few days continued unabated.

As a five-member delegation from the United Nations Security Council arrived in Jakarta, a prointegration militia in East Timor attacked Baucau monastery and wounded Bishop Basilio do Nascimento. Over 200 refugees were sheltering there when the assault took place.

"Bishop Basilio was injured; his arm was slashed by a militia member as he tried to protect refugees at his residence," Father Andreas Calleja from the Salesian order told The Jakarta Post by phone.

Jesuit priest Sandyawan Sumardi said on Wednesday Father Hilari in Suai was reportedly killed when his church was set on fire on Tuesday.

In response to the continuing violence, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Indonesia to accept international peacekeepers in East Timor.

Speaking to reporters after briefing an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Annan said the UN hoped to maintain a token presence in East Timor to protect some 2,000 refugees in its compound there, AFP reported from New York.

East Timor's other bishop, Nobel laureate Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, flew to Australia on Tuesday from Baucau after militia members attacked his mother's home where he was staying.

Belo had been flown to Baucau on Monday after his residence in Dili was attacked by pro-Jakarta militias.

Calleja said Nascimento, along with a number of priests, nuns and refugees, fled to the jungle and hills. The fate of other refugees who were seeking shelter in the monastery remains unknown, Calleja added.

Calleja also said some 200 priests and nuns had been forced to pull out of Dili by the militia, policemen and soldiers since Tuesday, before their churches and schools were torched. They were expected to arrive in Atambua and Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara on Wednesday night.

"They were told to leave, otherwise the militia would burn them alive," he said.

Priest Jose Carbonel said the Vatican had been informed about the attack on Baucau Bishop and it was expected to issue an official condemnation over the violence and demand a peacekeeping force be sent to East Timor.

A Dutch reporter in Dili, one of the few journalists remaining in the territory, told CNN that 200 UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) staff members and some 2,000 refugees sheltering in UNAMET's Dili compound had been deprived of food and water.

UNAMET withdrew about half of its staff from Dili on Monday and relocated them to Darwin as concern for their safety mounted.

The remaining UNAMET staff has been confined to a very small area of central Dili, unable to travel freely in the city.

However, David Wimhurst, spokesmen for UNAMET, denied reports the mission was planning to pull out of the ravaged territory.

He told Reuters from Darwin the imposition of martial law and a curfew in the region on Tuesday had done nothing to stop the rampaging gangs of militiamen who had killed hundreds of independence supporters since the UN-sponsored referendum.

The Post's local correspondent who fled Dili on Wednesday said smoke coming from burned houses and other buildings blanketed the East Timor capital.

"There was widespread destruction in the eastern part of Dili, while shops and houses were looted. Only government offices remain unscathed," he said.

He said thousands of people had been forcibly evicted from their homes.

"Many of them are sheltering in the provincial police headquarters because they feel churches are no longer a safe place to seek refuge," he said upon arriving in Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara. More than 23,000 people were sheltering in the police compound as of Wednesday.

Wimhurst called the forced deportation an operation to cleanse independence supporters, who gained a landslide victory in the Aug. 30 UN-sponsored ballot.

Chaos

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Togar M. Sianipar said on Wednesday that since the imposition of martial law, everything had gotten out of control in East Timor.

"Arson, looting and shots can be heard on the streets of East Timorese cities everywhere. Economically, East Timor is paralyzed. Government institutions have not been able to perform their functions at all," Togar said at National Police Headquarters.

"Arson includes the burning of houses, shopping complexes and government offices. Warehouses where oil is stored have been burned down.

"There is no communication at all, except for state radio RRI and a special police communications network. In short, it is total chaos," he said.

Telephone and satellite communications in the territory have been down since Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said refugees, mostly women and children, have been streaming into Atambua by boat, bus and truck at the rate of about 1,000 per hour. The refugees had difficulty finding clean water, ICRC spokesperson Sri Endah Wahyuni said.

A severe traffic jam clogged the road to the border town on Wednesday.

Medical workers at refugee centers in Kupang said they found 131 refugees, mostly children under two years of age, were suffering from respiratory problems.

East Nusa Tenggara Governor Piet Tallo said with some 70,000 refugees having entered Atambua and Kupang, the province would fall short of money to provide them with meals and medicine.

State Logistics Agency head Rahardi Ramelan said on Wednesday the agency was currently focusing on meeting the needs of East Timorese refugees in East Nusa Tenggara.

"Our supply of rice is enough for months," Rahardi said, taking into account 100,000 refugees in the province.

According to Minister of Social Services Justika Sjarifudin Baharsjah, people required a minimum of 0.4 kilograms of rice per person per day, which meant the refugees would need 600 tons of rice in the first 15 days.

"We have 260,000 tons of rice on the island of Timor itself," Rahardi said.

The problem was the distribution of other food resources, which come from outside Timor, mainly from Surabaya, Rahardi said.

Rahardi said he contacted the Ministry of Telecommunications and Transportation about the use of navigational ships to carry supplies to Kupang, which would minimize transportation costs. (02/33/gis/ylt/yac/amd)