FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Sona Bari (617) 524-1400

Boston, November 12 — Lina was asleep when the Indonesian soldiers threw a torch into her house. As the room caught fire, the soldiers shook her by the shoulders and told her that her East Timorese pro-independence father was dead. She watched in terror as they raped her aunt. In the horror of that night, Lina’s family scattered as they escaped into the hills of East Timor. Two months later, she has only found her mother and younger sister. The rest remain missing. Lina is 11 years old.

Like Lina, thousands of East Timorese fled their homes during the post-referendum violence. According to a new report released today by independent human rights agency Grassroots International, the refugees in West Timor are virtual hostages in militia-controlled camps, where they are abused, terrorized, and subjected to systematic rape.

The reprt, "The Other Side of the Crisis in East Timor" a report on conditions faced by the more than 220,000 people, refugees from the recent violence in East Timor. One-fourth of the population of East Timor, the refugees remain trapped in camps in West Timor under the control of the same pro-Indonesian militia groups responsible for the violence.

Recent contacts between newly-elected Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid and U.S. President William Clinton suggest that relations between Indonesia and the international community might be on the road to rapid normalization. Indonesia has recognized the results of the independence referendum in East Timor and withdrawn its troops from that territory. Notwithstanding these positive steps, the situation of the East Timorese refugees in West Timor and elsewhere in Indonesia remains in serious doubt.

"The Other Side of the Crisis in East Timor" argues that the Indonesian government has not taken the steps necessary to fulfill the commitments it made regarding the refugees in an October 15 agreement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The report concludes that, until Indonesia acts to guarantee the rights of these refugees--including the right to return to East Timor, if they so desire--the international community should not resume economic and military assistance to Indonesia.

Now available on-line at http://www.grassrootsonline.org/etrefugeereport.html, the report will be highlighted through a speaking tour by Pamela Sexton, who recently returned from East Timor. Sexton has been active in the East Timor Action Network for many years and   was an accredited observer during the referendum.

The dates of the tour are: San Francisco: Nov 15-17 Seattle: Nov 18-19 Los Angeles: Nov 20-23. See East Timor Support Events Calendar

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