Subject: AFP: In small East Timor town, refugees
fill church grounds again
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 16:42:58 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
In small East Timor town, refugees fill church grounds again
SUAI, East Timor, July 4 (AFP) - After a lull of a few months, refugees fleeing terror
and intimidation by armed pro-Indonesia militias have again begun to fill the grounds of a
church in this small town in troubled East Timor.
At the weekend, more than 400 people camped on the grounds of the church in Suai or
sheltered at the unfinished cathedral building there.
A local resident, who declined to be identified said the latest to seek shelter in the
church were 30 people who had come down from months of hiding in the forests of the area
on Friday.
The group arrived escorted by UN personnel from the Beco area.
On Thursday, 92 people had arrived in the church, joining some 300 people who had come
in the previous few days, the resident said.
The regional coordinator for the Suai area for the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET),
Asbjorn Jan Devold, confirmed that the UN personnel had "helped escort people
back" from Beco.
Antonio Alves, one of the 30 new arrivals, said he had hidden in the mountains for two
months after fleeing his village, fearing violence and intimidation by armed pro-Indonesia
militia in the area.
"We came down because the United Nations is already here. We are not afraid
anymore," Alves said.
But Osorio Soares, one of the men had already been holing up at the Suai church for
days, said that fear was still strong in Suai.
"We cannot yet get out of this church because in the village we cannot sleep at
night.
"Outside, there is still terror and intimidations," Soares said.
Between January and March, over 1,500 refugees packed the same church ground, fleeing
similar terror and intimidations. Others sought safety to in towns further away including
to Dili, the capital of East Timor some 105 kilometres (65 miles) northeast of here.
They had returned home gradually in March and April but a new flow of refugees have
started to arrive to the same church again in the past few days, the resident said.
Soares spoke of gunshots fired in the air by militias just outside Suai. He claimed the
militias "still have a lot of weapons," adding he had seen several types of
rifles and guns carried by militia members.
Another man, who declined to be named, said that in his village in Fatolulic, militias
killed pigs belonging to villagers to eat them and forced them to hand over their harvest
of honey.
"The people left their houses before UNAMET went there, because they had been
intimidated by the militias. They were told not to meet with UNAMET personnel," the
man said.
The resident said that Mahidi militia members have been distributing black T-shirts
with the name of the militia writen on them and told the people to wear them. They also
distributed the red-and-white Indonesian flag and force people in the area to fly them.
But unlike in several other towns, where local militias attacked or harrassed UN posts
and personnel, the militias in Suai had left the UNAMET personnel there in peace.
"Everything has been relatively quite here. We have nothing to complain
about," Devold said.
The attack on a UN outpost in Maliana some 42 kilometres (26 miles) north of Suai on
Tuesday, that left one UN poll officer and seven others injured, had slighlty disturbed
the UNAMET operations in Suai.
"After the incident in Maliana, we had to put everything on hold for two
days," Devold said, but he added that the post has resumed its normal operation after
that.
The UNAMET has been deployed in the troubled territory to help hold a ballot in August
to determine whether the population of the former Portuguese territory which Indonesia
invaded in 1975, would accept broad autonomy under Indonesia.
Jakarta has said that it may free East Timor if the autonomy offer was rejected.
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