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Journalism of Courage
Even as the three-man United Nations8217; electoral committee in Jakarta declared the August 30 East Timor ballot fair and an accurate reflection for the will of the people, the Indonesian police chief admitted that the escalating violence in the territory was 8220;out of control8221;.
8220;The latest developments are not yet calm. It is still out of control. The government in East Timor is not functioning,8221; national police chief Roesmanhadi told reporters. Bands of armed militiamen continued to roam unchecked in the streets wreaking bloody havoc. The last reported count of casualties for Sunday alone was at least 145 dead, and scores wounded.
As the United Nations began evacuating most of its staff in the wake of last week8217;s vote to reject continued rule by Indonesia, scores of more East Timorese were reported to have died at the hands of the militias.
Anti-Independence militias on Monday intensified their campaign of terror in East Timor, attacking refugees in camps and church compounds in what appeared to bea systematic attempt to force thousands to flee the territory.
Alarmed at the deteriorating situation, the UN Security Council agreed to send a mission to Jakarta to press the Indonesian authorities to reign in those behind the killing.
Indonesian President B.J. Habibie said he held telephone talks on Monday with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and was looking at ways to end the crisis.
Australia8217;s ambassador to Indonesia was also trapped in the Australian consulate in the city as he could not get transport to Dili airport, an Embassy spokesman said on Monday.
However, on the ground there were fresh reports of the Indonesian armed forces actively colluding in the militias8217; action.
David Wimhurst, spokesman for the UN in Dili, said officials had reported that 8220;Timorese people were being rounded up by the armed forces and trucked out of the province into West Timor8221;.
A Red Cross camp and the home of the Nobel Laureate bishop of Dili both came under attack. At least 7,000 refugees were crowded intothe grounds of Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo8217;s residence and at the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC compound when they came under attack, sources said.
8220;A group of Aitarak militias who had come from the Dili residence of the bishop attacked the ICRC compound at around 11 am,8221; a source in close contact with the ICRC delegation in Dili said. Some 2,000 refugees had been inside the ICRC compound, while close to 5,000 had been at the nearby residence of Bishop Belo.
Belo himself was safe and in Baucau, 115 kilometres east of Dili, East Timor police spokesman Captain Widodo and resistance sources said. Journalists reported that militiamen were forcing refugees from the two compounds at gunpoint onto trucks bound for Indonesian West Timor.
