| Subject: CNS: Bishop in
western Timor urges U.N. mandate for all of Timor September 25, 1999
Bishop in western Timor urges U.N. mandate for all of Timor
By Catholic News Service
ATAMBUA, Indonesia (CNS) -- Bishop Anton Pain Ratu of
Atambua has urged the United Nations to extend its mandate to all of Timor island to
prevent further slaughter of East Timorese. "It is essential for the international
community to foresee the humanitarian problem of the whole island of Timor, not just East
Timor alone,'' the bishop said in an appeal Sept. 15. His remarks were reported by UCA
News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand.
While East Timor gets peacekeepers, the Indonesian
government should allow the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the
International Committee of the Red Cross to work in western Timor, he said. The presence
of the U.N. refugee body and the Red Cross would "guarantee the humanitarian needs,
security and free right of (East Timorese) refugees to return to their place of origin if
they wish to do so,'' Bishop Pain Ratu said. The bishop said he feared that the arrival of
the U.N. peacekeeping force would force militiamen and Indonesian army units to move to
western Timor. "The concentration of these disappointed, undisciplined and humiliated
forces in western Timor will lead to a new reign of terror in western Timor,'' the bishop
said.
Bishop Pain Ratu cautioned that the East Timorese refugees
have bleak prospects of being allowed to return to their places of origin, alleging that
the forced evacuation of the population between Dili and the border with western Timor has
a political goal. He speculated that Indonesia would claim the some 200,000 refugees in
western Timor are pro-integration supporters as a pretext to grant independence to only
the eastern half of East Timor. He also warned that youths recruited into the militias who
fled the fighting will be sought out and murdered rather than leaving them free to tell
the truth about the atrocities. Meanwhile, a Catholic volunteer who asked not to be named
reported Sept. 20 from Kupang that abduction of refugees suspected to be pro-independence
supporters has become a daily tale of terror in the western Timor city. Fear was
prevailing among not only the refugees but also locals as military personnel and armed
militiamen from East Timor patrol areas around churches and public places like hospitals,
telecommunication shops and bus stops in the city, capital of East Nusa Tenggara province,
the volunteer said. The volunteer added that refugees say visitors claiming to be
relatives turn out to be militiamen coming to search for pro-integration activists.
Bishop Pain Ratu, in his appeal, urged the international
community to show solidarity with the refugees through emergency aid. He said he also sees
an urgent need to bury the dead, explaining that the displaced people have no means to do
this but that with such a big number of people there will be a number of deaths everyday.
"I ask charitable organizations to contribute a minimum of $50 per funeral to avoid
adding shame to the grief of these unfortunate brothers and sisters of ours,'' he said.
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