Indonesia: Summary Update on West Timor

1. Humanitarian Emergency
Since the announcement of the ballot results in Dili on 4 September 1999, tens of thousands of East Timorese and non-East Timorese have left East Timor, mainly for West Timor but also to other islands. They have joined some 9000 refugees already in West Timor for many months. The majority of the new arrivals appear to have been forcibly deported from along the North coast at least in the sense that militias ordered them to leave their homes after the ballot because they intended to turn East Timor into a battlefield to contest the result of the ballot. Others have entered West Timor in the South, following the burning and chaos in Suai in early September.

Local Church sources in West Timor estimate that the number of East Timorese refugees in West Timor and Flores, as of 21 September 1999, is 182,000. Additional refugees can be found on other Indonesian islands including Alor (2500), Bali (600), Java, Kalimantan, and Irian Jaya.

In West Timor

• Most are women, children and older men.
• Most are living in plastic tents. Some are living in barracks. The luckier ones occupy public facilities such as school and church buildings, warehouses and bus terminals.
• Sanitation is very poor due to lack of clean water.
• There is food for two weeks.
• Medicines are limited and there are few health workers. The most common diseases are malaria, diarrhoea, flu, colds, skin complaints.
• Younger men have been forced to join the militia or take refuge in the interior.
• Local infrastructure is over taxed and the Provincial Government does not have capacity to meet the sudden huge demand for basic services.
• Militia intimidation has severely restricted international aid agencies from providing aid to camps, forcing them to rely on local churches and NGOs.
• The refugees are a volatile mix of angry pro-integration groups and some pro-independence. The latter feel very afraid and threatened.
• Some refugees have managed to exit West Timor for other parts of Indonesia, but militias and military are blocking access to flights and boats.
• The Indonesian Minister for Transmigration, A.M. Hendropriyono, stated (20 September) that Indonesia would permanently resettle IDPs in West Timor (20,000 households), Maluku and Irian Jaya if they wanted to remain in Indonesia. Authorities have stated their readiness to upgrade infrastructure, build homes and allocate farmland to IDPs who wish to stay.

2. Human Rights Violations

Military and militias, openly carrying arms, have accompanied the refugees and are now increasingly evident in West Timor. Numbers will increase further as more militias and military retreat from East Timor to West Timor following the arrival of the UN multinational force. Family members of the military and police have also been brought to West Timor.

• Militias are reported to behave arrogantly and roam unchecked, including taking goods from stores and shops. The Provincial Government is concerned that their behaviour could spark retaliation by the West Timorese community and lead to serious violence, or that the volatile situation could be exploited by other interests.
• Evidence is mounting that the intimidation and brutality exercised by militia in East Timor is now being practised in West Timor against pro-independence supporters. Many accounts are circulating of the shooting and disappearance of pro-independence supporters, including during the sea journey to West Timor.
• Adult males are being forced to support or fight with pro-integration forces intent on securing the western border region or waging guerilla war from West Timor against the Multinational Force. On 18 September, the Commander of the pro-integration forces, Eurico Guterres, publically stated his intention to attack the Multinational Forces and claim the 5 regions along the border with East Timor. Also on 18 September, pro-integration groups established a new organisation (FPB) to defend national unity.
• The centre of the East Timorese enclave of Oecusse (in West Timor) was razed by militia groups on 19 September.
  Militias have harassed Church institutions providing refuge to IDPs and prepared lists of pro-independence supporters they seek. Pro-integration militias have also attacked international agencies, including UNHCR and OXFAM staff, and harassed journalists and Westerners.
• Goods and merchandise looted in East Timor are being traded in West Timor markets or taken on to cities in Java.

3. Recommendations

• The UN Security Council must take urgent and appropriate action to uphold its stated commitment to East Timorese refugees. Security Council Resolution 1264 (1999) adopted on 15 September 1999, reaffirmed "the right of refugees and displaced persons to return in safety and security to their homes" and stressed "that it is the responsibility of the Indonesian authorities to take immediate and effective measures to ensure the safe return of refugees to East Timor".
• The UN Multinational Force must establish a presence in the East Timorese enclave of Oecusse in West Timor to protect its residents from further militia violence and to provide a safe haven for East Timorese in West Timor.

Indonesia must be pressed:

• to honour the undertaking given 22 September to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mrs Sadako Ogata, to allow the UNHCR to provide full "security and access to all the people in need of assistance" in West Timor and other parts of Indonesia;
• to allow local, national and international humanitarian and human rights organisations free and full access to address the needs of refugees;
• to arrest those guilty of breaking the law and disarm the militias;
• to allow the refugees the choice to return to East Timor. Such a choice will require, inter alia, access to all relevant information, guarantees of security whatever their choice, and an opportunity to discuss their situation with separated family members. These provisions must apply particularly to refugees offered transmigration.

Contact: pwalsh@acfoa.asn.au

Pat Walsh
Australian Council for Overseas Aid