EAST TIMOR: MEMORIAL HELD FOR THREE UNITED NATIONS AID WORKERS KILLED IN WEST TIMOR

Record ID: 337953

  • Title: EAST TIMOR: MEMORIAL HELD FOR THREE UNITED NATIONS AID WORKERS KILLED IN WEST TIMOR
  • Date: 14th September 2000
  • Summary: DILI, EAST TIMOR (SEPTEMBER 13, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PRIESTS WALKING INTO CHURCH 0.08 2. MV PRIEST STANDING BY PLACARDS WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF DEAD UNITED NATIONS PERSONNEL KILLED IN ATAMBUA, WEST TIMOR; BEREAVED DURING MASS (13 SHOTS) 1.57 3. (SOUNDBITE)(English) SERGIO VIERA DE MELLO, HEAD OF THE UNITED NATIONS ADMINISTRATION IN EAST TIMOR
  • Embargoed: 29th September 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, EAST TIMOR
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVA8B76FDXQDMXXVMBBP1AVUNUQ
  • Story Text: East Timorese paid tribute on Wednesday to the three
    United Nations aid workers slain last week in West Timor.

    Around 120,000 refugees remain stuck in West Timor without
    help after the United Nations fled the region following the
    attacks.

    Dili's main cathedral was crowded with locals and
    United Nations personnel as the memorial service for the three
    United Nations aid workers killed in West Timor last week
    began.

    Words of bitterness echoed through East Timor's Dili
    Cathedral on Wednesday as hundreds of people mourned three
    international aid workers murdered by pro-Jakarta gangs in
    West Timor last week.

    Poster-sized photographs of the three slain United
    Nations staff stood at the foot of the altar, while Sergio
    Vieira de Mello, U.N. head of mission for East Timor,
    delivered a eulogy.

    Ethiopian Samson Aregahegn, 44, Puerto Rican Carlos
    Caceres, 33, and Croatian Pero Simundza, 29, were hacked to
    death and their bodies then burned in streets of the West
    Timor border town of Atambua last Wednesday.

    All three men worked for the United Nations High
    Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and were helping get much
    needed food to 120,000 East Timorese stranded in border
    refugee camps.

    Later after mass, Vieira de Mello said he remained
    hopeful the situation in West Timor will improve.

    "As far as West Timor, we hope that the security
    concerns can be restored as soon as possible. And that will
    allow us and other agency and the Indonesian to get
    repatriation rolling again. I am convinced that there are
    still a large number of people in the camps that want to be
    repatriated"
    Their deaths drew international condemnation and
    triggered an exodus of all foreign aid workers from Indonesian
    West Timor, heightening fears over food shortages among the
    refugees who the militias have largely prevented from
    returning to East Timor.

    The Catholic mass in Dili was conducted in English and
    the native East Timorese language Tetun before a mainly
    foreign congregation of around 400 peacekeepers,
    non-governmental organisation staff and aid workers.

    Indonesia is facing mounting international anger for
    failing to halt the violence in West Timor by gangs who only a
    year ago waged a campaign of killing and destruction in East
    Timor following its overwhelming vote for independence.


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