| Subject: Thousands of E.
Timorese Families Separated; children at risk Associated Press 10-31-99
Many E. Timorese Families Separated
By LAURA KING
DILI, East Timor (AP) - Four-year-old Natalino Alegria is
downcast, seemingly close to tears. Benedito Martins, small for his 11 years, stares into
the camera with the defiant look of a kid who's scared but trying not to show it.
Both were separated from their parents more than seven
weeks ago, when hundreds of thousands of East Timorese fled in terror as anti-independence
militiamen went on a rampage of burning, looting and gunfire.
Along with other youngsters in photos posted on a bulletin
board in East Timor's burned-out capital, Natalino and Benedito clutch hand-scrawled signs
to their chests bearing identification numbers meant to help relief workers reunite them
with their families.
Up to three-quarters of the former Portuguese colony's
850,000 people fled into the rugged mountains of the interior or to squalid refugee camps
in neighboring West Timor, and many families were separated in the chaos.
Only about 100 East Timorese children are formally
registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross as missing, but relief
workers believe the actual number is much higher.
``In many cases, the families have managed to find out from
friends or relatives where their children ended up, so they haven't reported them missing
- they're just waiting and hoping for news,'' said Ruth Kottmann, who helps run the Red
Cross tracing program.
``And in the camps, people will step in and take care of an
unaccompanied child if there is any connection at all - someone they know from their
village or neighborhood, perhaps, or the child of an acquaintance. Or even a stranger.''
Every morning at Dili's badly damaged main hospital, a long
line of people forms to look at pictures of missing children. So far, five have been
reunited with their families. A dozen more have been identified by relatives and are
waiting to be brought back this week.
Displacement is only one of the perils afflicting East
Timor's children.
Schools are ruined and teachers have fled. Childhood
diseases threaten to sweep through whole communities, and a monotonous diet of rice is
stunting many kids' growth. Tens of thousands of children are living in wrecked, looted
homes. Some are traumatized by the violence they witnessed, especially against their
mothers.
Children's needs are central to much of the work by aid
agencies in East Timor. The groups were able to resume operations only after an
international peacekeeping force moved in Sept. 20 to quell the militia violence that
broke out after the territory's people voted overwhelmingly for independence from
Indonesia.
Last week, seeking to stave off a potential measles
epidemic, medical groups launched a mass vaccination drive for children under 5.
Thousands of mothers with infants and toddlers in arms
lined up in sweltering heat outside vaccination centers in Dili and outlying towns. As
ships began returning thousands of refugees from West Timor, youngsters got vaccinations
as soon as they stepped off the boat.
Amid such progress, there are worrisome signs. Aid workers
are concerned about the growing numbers of ragged street kids who have taken to begging
outside the capital's military posts and aid compounds.
Very few are thought to be homeless, but their parents are
simply too overwhelmed by the task of rebuilding their homes and finding food to keep a
close eye on them.
For unsupervised children, Dili holds hazards at every
turn: dangling live electrical wires, traffic, buildings with half-collapsed walls and
roofs. The capital is an armed camp, filled with soldiers and sandbags, tanks and trucks,
curls of razor wire.
Probably the most important step toward restoring structure
and routine to children's lives will be getting schools running again. That won't be easy.
About 70 percent of East Timor's buildings have been
destroyed or badly damaged, including most schools. Almost all the teachers were
Indonesian and have left now that Indonesia's 24-year rule is over.
The school year should have already started, so aid
agencies have embarked on a crash program to catch up, including accelerated teacher
training and distribution of ``school-in-a-box'' kits with notebooks, pencils, chalkboards
and other supplies.
In addition to the outside help, the overwhelmingly Roman
Catholic territory has a crucial homegrown educational asset: the church. Convent schools
will be among the first to reopen.
``The nuns got right to work,'' said Paula Claycomb of
UNICEF, which is coordinating the children aid effort.
Although many children were psychologically scarred by the
violence, it likely will be months before organized counseling can be started, aid workers
say. In the meantime, they hope normal school activities like playing, telling stories and
drawing pictures will prove therapeutic.
Just as importantly, the schools can teach a key lesson:
tolerance. When adults talk angrily about revenge against the militias or those who helped
them, the children are often listening.
``After what happened here, there's a lot of concern about
a culture of hatred becoming entrenched,'' said UNICEF's Margaret de Moncy, a regional
adviser on child protection.
In spite of everything, many children are showing a natural
resilience.
Within days of the peacekeepers' arrival, wary kids began
shaking off their fear of uniformed men. On hot afternoons now, in the shadow of troop
transport ships docked in Dili, laughing little boys leap off the edge of a ruined pier
and splash around in the harbor.
AP-NY-10-31-99 1305EST
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