INDONESIA: REFUGEES ARE WALKING BACK INTO EAST TIMOR/CAPTURED PRO-JAKARTA MILITIA FORCES SAY MOST MILITIAMEN WERE FORCES TO JOIN

Record ID: 274753

  • Title: INDONESIA: REFUGEES ARE WALKING BACK INTO EAST TIMOR/CAPTURED PRO-JAKARTA MILITIA FORCES SAY MOST MILITIAMEN WERE FORCES TO JOIN
  • Date: 20th October 1999
  • Summary: DILI, EAST TIMOR (OCTOBER 19, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV/SV FOOD BEING UNLOADED AT AIRPORT (3 SHOTS) 0.17 2. AERIAL OF MOUNTAINS 0.22 3. SV INTERIOR OF HELICOPTER 0.27 4. AERIAL OF HOUSES 0.34 MALIANA, EAST TIMOR (OCTOBER 19, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 5. SV OFFLOADING FOOD 0.36 6. SV PEOPLE WATCHING
  • Embargoed: 4th November 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DILI, MEMO, LIQUICA, MALIANA, EAST TIMOR
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVA533ST9W2MLPXD69HMWUPNRV7H
  • Story Text: Thousands of refugees are walking back into East Timor
    at the border town of Memo, trekking for hours across
    mountains from camps in Indonesian West Timor.

    Meanwhile captured members of the remaining pro-Jakarta
    militia forces in East Timor said most militiamen were forced
    to join through violence and threats of death.

    Streams of East Timorese people, from toddlers to old
    folk, continue to walk across the border from West Timor,
    after being forced by pro-Jakarta Miltias to spend time in
    camps across the border.

    Some refugees carried their paltry possessions on carts
    or horses.Most simply balanced sacks of clothes and cooking
    utensils on their heads as they walked in the scorching heat
    for hours to reach the dry river bed that forms the border.

    Aid workers and troops have rushed to move food and
    supplies to the area, flying 6 helicopter missions to the
    nearby town of Maliana.The U.N.-mandated force has also sent
    Ghurka soldiers to patrol surrounding areas to insure security
    for returning refugees.Meanwhile stability is gradually
    returning to other parts of East Timor.

    In Liquica former militia members, captured by
    pro-independence Falantil forces and delivered to Interfet,
    said they had been forced at gunpoint to join the violent
    anti- independence militias.

    "A large groups of militia came to my town, and forced
    me to join them on activities of destruction, which included
    burning houses and attacking people, and if I had not done it
    the militia would have killed me" said Eduardo Decosta.

    Around 250,000 East Timorese fled to neighbouring West
    Timor and other nearby parts of Indonesia during a campaign of
    murder and arson waged by pro-Jakarta militias and the
    Indonesian military after East Timor's overwhelming vote for
    independence on August 30.


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