AUSTRALIA: UN SPOKESMAN DAVID WIMHURST GIVES ASSESSMENT ON EAST TIMOR AT NEWS CONFERENCE IN DARWIN

Record ID: 190110

  • Title: AUSTRALIA: UN SPOKESMAN DAVID WIMHURST GIVES ASSESSMENT ON EAST TIMOR AT NEWS CONFERENCE IN DARWIN
  • Date: 8th September 1999
  • Summary: DARWIN, AUSTRALIA (SEPTEMBER 8, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV OF NEWS CONFERENCE 0.03 2. MCU (English) DAVID WIMHURST, UN SPOKESMAN, SAYING: "We have a satellite dish, communications with New York that allows us to have phone lines and e-mails. That's outside the compound and that has been disabled. In some way, it has either been damaged or the lines have been cut. 0.27 3. CU OF MICROPHONE 0.28 4. MCU (English) WIMHURST TALKING ABOUT REFUGEES BEING SENT TO EAST TIMOR: "That is the great unknown right now. But we don't know. Tens of thousands of people have been forcibly removed from East Timor and trucked into West Timor or being taken in by boat. We don't know what their fate is at all. We don't have anybody in West Timor who can verfiy that at the moment. Obviously this is a humanitarian sitaution and organisations like the UNHCR would have the ability or certainly the right, the international community the Red Cross as well to see what the situation is there but I don't know if any plans are being made to do that yet." 1.20 DARWIN, AUSTRALIA (SEPTEMBER 8, 1999) (REUTERS -ACCESS ALL) 5. SLV/SV BISHOP CARLO BELO MEETING SUPPORTERS, WOMAN HUGS BELO 1.34 6. SV BELO SHAKING HAND WITH SUPPORTERS, SPEAKING TO SUPPORTERS (2 SHOTS) 2.11 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 23rd September 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: REUTERS
  • Country: Australia
  • Reuters ID: LVA3YJZ47O0VRQ1PJQCNI12XQ02N
  • Story Text: Telephone and satellite communications with East
    Timor's capital Dili have been severed, but reports filtering
    out of the beseiged city tell of snipers, burning houses and
    looting.

    Those who have fled the anarchy in the territory have
    arrived in Darwin to tell their story.

    UN spokesman David Wimhurst gave the latest assessment
    on East Timor at a news conference in Darwin on Wednesday
    (September 8).

    "We have a satellite dish, communications with New York
    that allows us to have phone lines and e-mails.That's
    outside the compound and that has been disabled.In some way,
    it has either been damaged or the lines have been cut,"
    Wimhurst said.

    Wimhurst said the last report from the UN compound in
    Dili was that it had been fired upon on Tuesday (September 7),
    but nobody was hurt.

    Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported from inside
    the UN compound that siege conditions had eased on Wednesday
    morning after an Indonesian officer pledged his troops would
    protect the compound from militia.

    AAP said it remained too dangerous to leave the
    compound, but it appeared Dili was quieter after days of
    shooting, burning, looting and forced deportations of East
    Timorese.

    But single shots continued to ring out around the UN
    compound, where scores more refugees sought refuge last
    overnight, joining more than 1,000 terrified East Timorese
    already there.

    The territory's spiritual leader, Bishop Carlos Belo,
    once an untouchable independence figurehead in mostly Catholic
    East Timor, had earlier escaped to Australia under an alias on
    Tuesday (September 7) before being greeted by supporters in
    Darwin.

    Hundreds of people have been killed in East Timor by
    gangs of rampaging pro-Jakarta militia since the August 30
    ballot in which East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for
    independence after more than 23 years of Indonesian rule.

    Jakarta has declared martial law and a curfew in East
    Timor in an effort to stop the burning and killing.


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