Thousands face food shortages on E. Timor coast

BOBONARO, East Timor (JP): About 5,000 people in four coastal villages here are enduring food shortages after a dry spell since January caused massive crop failures, a local official has confirmed.

Fransisco Martins Dias, the chief of the Atabae subdistrict some 140 kilometers west of the provincial capital of Dili, said yesterday that Aidabalete village was the most severely affected.

Villagers said many people were only able to eat once daily in the past three months after their crops of corn, rice and cassava failed.

"Now we are surviving by just eating sago. And for that we have to go deep into the forest to find the sago palm tree," a housewife told The Jakarta Post at the Loes beach yesterday.

"We used to eat three times a day, but now we have only one meal a day. If we can stand it, we try to not eat for the whole day."

Many villagers appeared gaunt and pale.

"There is no food at home. We have substituted sago for rice, but finding a sago palm tree is not easy," said another villager. "Worse, it's also hard to catch fish in the sea."

Some people dissolved into tears as they recounted their hardships.

Francisco said the villages of Atabae, Rairobu and Hatas in the subdistrict were also facing a scarcity of food.

"But these villages still have food stocks for another three months, unlike Aidabalete, which has completely run out of food except sago," he told the Post.

"I cannot do much except write down the names of the villagers and pass on the list to the Bobonaro regent and social services office in the regency in order to get food relief from the government."

He complained the task of registering villagers' names remained uncompleted because village chiefs had yet to submit their lists.

Food relief

The subdistrict had also requested food relief from the Baliho Catholic diocese, Francisco added, although he did not say whether the aid was forthcoming.

The government provided food relief of basic commodities to Aidabalete on March 11, he said.

"However, it was only relief for victims who lost their houses in the 1995 fires. The villagers who are facing food shortages have yet to obtain any relief."

Francisco said the villagers' only hope was for their remaining land near the Loes coast to yield a good harvest.

But he said this was only true for villagers with fertile land, and others would have to wait for what the future brought them.

There had earlier been reports about food shortage in Atauro Island in Dili regency, East Timor. (33)