Refugees starving, find food in forest

Refugees starving, find food in forest

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

Many East Timorese refugees currently stuck in East Nusa Tenggara
province are searching for food in the nearby forest in an effort
to survive after the government stopped supplying them with food.

The starving refugees, living at the Noelbaki, Tuapukan and
Naibonat camps in Kupang regency, have become desperate.

"Some of them have run out of food. Every day they are forced
to consume leaves, fruit and all kinds of tubers from the jungle
to survive," coordinator of the Noelbaki camp Jose Gutteres said
on Monday.

He was speaking to The Jakarta Post when he visited the
provincial governor's office to ask for food assistance from the
local administration. Jose was accompanied for the visit by
coordinators of the other two camps and by representatives of the
refugees.

Around 20,000 refugees are housed at Noelbaki, Tuapukan and
Naibonat in Kupang, while at least 108,000 others are
accommodated in other regencies, including Belu, South Central
and North Central Timor.

Jose urged the Indonesian government and international
organizations to take emergency measures to save the 128,000
refugees from starvation.

The scarcity of food has spread to other camps across the
province, he said. "It's not only refugees in Kupang who are
starving, but our brothers in Belu and North and South Central
Timor are also suffering a similar fate."

Children and elderly people were the worst affected in the
refugee camps, with many of them starting to become sick through
their reduced resistance.

Coordinator of the Tuapukan camp Gustaf L. Lapenangga said the
refugees' state of health had continued to deteriorate, as many
of them were suffering from disease, such as malaria, diarrhea
and respiratory problems.

"We no longer have any self-respect. We are hungry and even
sleep in wet places. It's as though we are animals," he
complained.

At least 15 refugees have died from malaria, diarrhea and
other diseases in recent months, according to activists from
nongovernmental organizations.

The cash-strapped government halted the supply of food
assistance for the refugees on Jan. 1 and instead offered them
the choice of staying in Indonesia under a resettlement program
or returning to East Timor.

The refugees are the last of the some 250,000 others who fled
the carnage unleashed by pro-Jakarta militias in East Timor after
it voted to secede from Indonesia in August 1999. Many of the
other refugees have since returned to their homeland.

However, the estimated 128,000 refugees currently languishing
in West Timor and Kupang have refused to leave the camps until
East Timor officially becomes an independent state on May 20,
2002.

Residents in Noelbaki, Tuapukan and Naibonat have complained
of violence and terror perpetrated by refugees who steal from
them and rob them for food.

Udayana Military Commander Maj. Gen. Wellem T. da Costa
ordered soldiers last week to shoot any East Timor refugees found
committing violence against villagers living near the camps.