-Caveat Lector- September 6 1999 FAR EAST Anti-independence militiamen kill 20 Australian Navy to evacuate UN staff 150,000 flee East Timor terror FROM DAVID WATTS IN DILI AND JAMES BONE IN NEW YORK MILITIA gunmen rampaged through the capital of East Timor last night killing more than 20 people as violence throughout the territory forced up to 150,000 — a quarter of the population — to become refugees. The well co-ordinated attacks appeared designed to drive out United Nations officials, aid workers and foreign media after the historic vote for independence from Indonesia. The militiamen surrounded the UN compound and overran hotels used by foreigners. Today Australia will launch an evacuation of non-essential United Nations staff and Australians, a defence official said. Lieutenant-Colonel David Tyler said that the Australian Defence Force would make several sorties into Dili using five C-130 Hercules transport aircraft flying out of the Tyndall air force base at Darwin in Northern Territory. The UN Security Council decided yesterday to send a mission to Jakarta to put pressure on the Indonesian government to halt the violence. Reports from Dili said that pro-Indonesian militias had attacked the home in the capital of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Belo, torching the Roman Catholic diocese office and burning houses. Bishop Belo’s fellow prize winner, the independence leader Jose Ramos-Horta, called for international military intervention, saying that the credibility of the United Nations was at stake. "People must be protected by an independent, neutral armed force in the territory," he said. Pro-independence sources said at least 100 East Timorese had been killed in two days of bloody unrest since Saturday’s announcement that a UN-organised ballot on August 30 had recorded a 78.5 per cent vote in favour of the territory’s independence from Indonesia. Indonesia came under blistering international criticism for failing to control the proJakarta militias, as its ministers of defence, foreign affairs, police and justice flew to Dili to discuss the crisis with UN officials. Last night the UN convened an emergency session and Australia made a proposal to send in a UN-authorised peacekeeping force. Indonesia is resisting the suggestion. Only hours after the referendum result was announced militiamen began rampaging through areas known to support independence. The militias appeared determined to carry out their threat of civil war if Jakarta’s offer of autonomy without independence was turned down. Shortly after nightfall, in a well-organised exercise in terror clearly intended to look like civil war and to paralyse UN operations, gunmen started firing streams of tracer fire over a crowded camp in a school area next to the UN compound. It had the desired effect. Men, women and children threw themselves at the razor wire that surrounds the compound in a frantic attempt to escape what they had been warned would happen to them. The women had been told to dance and enjoy the day because it would be their last. Shredding themselves on the wire, they ran screaming into the UN base; 1,400 men, women and children crammed into the hall. They were already hungry and tired from days in the camp. "I’ve never seen a controlled situation so out of control," an official said. James Dunn, a leading foreign expert on the territory, said: "It’s a thoroughly planned campaign from over the border in West Timor which has exposed the Indonesian lie that they are loved here in East Timor. "The vote is an utter humiliation for the army and they are venting their frustration on the people." The UN pulled all its staff in the capital back to its main compound and suffered its first serious Western casualty when a young American doctor was ambushed east of Dili by a dark-clad gunman carrying an automatic weapon and wearing a flak jacket similar to those used by Indonesia’s mobile brigade. The representatives of CARE International, Mèdecins sans Frontiéres and World Vision International were all threatened or attacked. The offices of the principal human rights association were raided, the attackers smashing in the windows and climbing in. Eight people were killed in a diocesan house in the centre of Dili, and about 20 elsewhere in the town. In the past 24 hours, 25,000 people in the capital have become refugees. The total number of refugees was reported to be more than 100,000 and up to 150,000. http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/09/06/timfgnfar01004.html?11240 27 Bard DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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