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Winston Neil Rondo
Biography
Winston
Neil Rondo is the General Secretary of the Centre for Internally Displaced
People's Services (CIS) in Kupang, West Timor, Indonesia. CIS has worked
with the refugees in the West Timor camps since their expulsion from East
Timor in September 1999. In conjunction with Catholic Relief Services,
Church World Service, UNICEF, the Eastern Indonesian Women's Health
Network (JKPIT) and others, CIS has provided humanitarian assistance to
thousands of families and children, investigated human rights abuses,
counseled women victims of violence and reported on violence against women
in the camps, and disseminated accurate information on repatriation to
refugees to combat militia intimidation.
Winston Neil Rondo was raised and educated in Kupang. In 1999, Mr.
Rondo joined FORSOLIDARESTE, a West Timorese nongovernmental organization
formed in response to militia violence in East Timor to promote peace,
reconciliation, and human rights. Mr. Rondo spent seven months in East
Timor as an accredited observer of the August 1999 referendum on
independence, monitoring human rights conditions. When the Indonesian
military began its post-ballot scorched earth campaign, forcing some
260,000 East Timorese into West Timor, Mr. Rondo helped found CIS and
distributed shelter materials, clothing, and other essential aid to
refugee families. In November 1999, he began investigating human rights
abuses in three of the largest refugee camps near Kupang. Mr. Rondo worked
closely with JKPIT and other organizations to provide counseling to women
victims of violence in the refugee camps in the Kupang and Belu regions.
He also coordinated and monitored the establishment of three "tent
schools" for refugee children in Belu.
Mr. Rondo and CIS are currently working to ensure the refugee
registration process scheduled for June 6, 2001 allows refugees to choose
between repatriation to East Timor and resettlement within Indonesian
freely and without intimidation. Their ongoing concerns include the
prominent role of the Indonesian military and militia in the registration
process.
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