| Subject: East Timor
faces a new enemy -- rain East Timor
faces a new enemy -- rain
By Andrew Marshall
DILI, East Timor, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A new enemy arrived in
the shattered East Timorese capital of Dili on Thursday -- rain.
A heavy downpour soaked the city in mid-afternoon, sending
locals scattering for cover and heralding the start of the rainy season that is expected
to last for the next few months.
In the past, the onset of the rains after months of baking
heat was a time of celebration in East Timor.
No longer.
With many of East Timor's towns and villages reduced to
charred ruins in the violence that swept the former Portuguese colony last month, the rain
will add to the misery of tens of thousands living in makeshift shelters or holed up in
the mountains where they fled last month.
The onset of the rainy season makes humanitarian efforts in
East Timor more urgent, and at the same time more difficult.
Roads are expected to become increasingly impassable, a
serious problem for the aid agencies struggling to distribute food and shelter, and for
the INTERFET multinational force striving to restore order in East Timor after the
violence that followed its overwhelming vote for independence in August.
``With the rainy season it will become harder to transport
by road and this has made our task more urgent,'' said Jaques Franquin, spokesman for the
UNHCR in East Timor.
He said the UNHCR had been hard at work pre-positioning
supplies in key locations ahead of the rainy season.
MORE MISERY FOR REFUGEES
Around 250,000 people fled or were forcibly deported last
month to West Timor, where many of them are staying in refugee camps, some controlled by
the pro-Jakarta militia who along with Indonesia's military were responsible for last
month's violence.
The UNHCR estimates around 150,000 want to return, and many
are expected to come over the border on foot.
The long trek across the border was arduous during the hot
season -- a baby and an elderly man died during the influx of refugees in the town of Memo
earlier this week.
In the rainy season, with the terrain waterlogged and roads
deteriorating, it will be harder still.
Many refugees will be returning to detroyed towns and
villages -- the border town of Maliana, where most refugees are expected to converge, has
been almost totally razed. The need to provide shelter is urgent.
For the U.N.-backed INTERFET force, the rain will make
patrolling more difficult. Chief of staff Colonel Mark Kelly says teams of military
engineers have been working to improve roads ahead of the start of the rains.
For investigators probing alleged atrocities in the
violence, the rain also presents a problem. The U.N. is already facing criticism that
evidence is deteriorating due to delays in sending investigation teams. Now that the rainy
season has begun, the deterioration will accelerate.
04:31 10-21-99
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