| Subject: SMH: Home
from horror camps also: H From hills and caves, Timor's lost come
out of hiding
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday, October 9, 1999
Home from horror camps
PHOTO: Scorched earth ... despite the efforts of Interfet
forces, suspicious fires break out daily in Dili. Photo by AFP.
By MARK DODD, Herald Correspondent in Dili
Women and children wept and one man kissed the ground as
the first group of 91 East Timorese refugees arrived home from refugee camps in Indonesian
West Timor yesterday.
"We are so happy. We are crying because we've come
back to the fatherland and, for the many people we have left behind," said one
teenage girl.
Their arrival capped days of frustrating negotiations
between officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Indonesian
authorities in Kupang.
An agreement has now been reached for at least two
evacuation flights daily from West Timor, UNHCR officials said. A second flight carrying
another 90 refugees was expected in Dili late yesterday.
A United States State Department official, watching the
arrival, said news of the successful repatriation would probably trickle back to the West
Timor camps which, he said, were awash with militia propaganda alleging Australian
atrocities against East Timorese.
"Right now the only information they are getting is
from the militia, and based on that they are not likely to come back quickly."
About 250,000 East Timorese remain in West Timor, many
crammed into squalid refugee camps controlled by the same militia responsible for the
devastation in their homeland.
Many were ordered out of their homes at gunpoint, herded
into trucks or ships and deposited across the border in an Indonesian military operation
that followed the landslide vote for independence on August 30.
The UNHCR team leader in Kupang, Mr Craig Sanders, said:
"I would describe their physical condition as fairly precarious. A lot of people have
been living outdoors without access to sanitation."
The first group of returnees were mostly women and children
from the Dili area, many looking exhausted and gaunt.
As they filed down the ramp of the cargo plane, Australian
troops provided a protective cordon as one orange-beret officer from a detachment of
Indonesian Air Force special troops tried to photograph the refugees.
The refugees were then taken to their temporary home at
Dili's football stadium, where about 1,500 displaced people are sheltering.
One of the Australian soldiers shot in a gun battle with
East Timorese militia was due to be transferred from Darwin to Sydney for specialist
medical attention late yesterday. The 26-year-old was wounded by a bullet which shattered
the bone below his knee. A second soldier, a 34-year-old, is said to be recovering in
hospital in Darwin.
Sydney Morning Herald Saturday, October 9, 1999
From hills and caves, Timor's lost come out of hiding
Dili: Slowly, and in the most unexpected places, the lost
people of East Timor are beginning to emerge and place themselves in the care of Interfet
troops and aid agencies.
It is still only a trickle, and the whereabouts of up to
400,000 people who fled the purges of bloody pro-Indonesian militia are yet to be found.
British Gurkha troops on patrol discovered one lot of 1,600
refugees hiding in caves on the far eastern tip of the territory. They had just three days
of food left, and their only water pump was broken. Urgent medical supplies are being
organised.
In Suai, near the border with West Timor, news has spread
by bush telegraph that the Australians and others are now in control after initial bloody
clashes with the militia.
A group of about 30 who arrived in the battered town - for
months a militia stronghold - said they and the many others they had left behind in the
hills urgently needed food and medical help.
"There are thousands living in the hills," said
Mr Albert Montz, 22.
"Many people are sick and everyone is hungry. We need
help as quickly as possible."
Meanwhile, the Interfet commander, Major-General Peter
Cosgrove, planned to meet with Taur Matan Ruak, the ground commander of the
pro-independence group Falintil that has fought Indonesian rule since the occupation of
East Timor in 1975.
They were due to discuss a reconciliation and disarming
plan. Interfet has agreed that Falintil can remain armed within its cantonments for the
meantime, contrary to the UN mandate for initial forces to disarm all non-military.
"If he [Ruak] accepts the proposal that we put forward
... you will see hopefully that we will engage all parties and then obviously lead to a
reconciliation and laying down of arms," said an Interfet spokesman, Colonel Mark
Kelly.
Falintil has agreed in principle to disarm but refuses to
do so until all of the 1,400 remaining Indonesian soldiers leave East Timor.
Several hundred East Timorese civilians gathered yesterday
morning at Dili port. They jeered Indonesian sailors loading trucks, shouting: "Get
out of our country, you scum!"
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