---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- The Australian 13 Aug 99 Farewell to arms of uncivil service >From SIAN POWELL in Dili THE Awu steamed out of Dili yesterday, taking another 500 people from East=20 Timor's troubled shores.=20 Countless thousands of Indonesians =96 the wives and children of civil serva= nts=20 and entire families of trans-migrants =96 have quietly left the province in = the=20 months since President B.J. Habibie declared in January that the East=20 Timorese people would be allowed to choose independence, or autonomy within=20 Indonesia.=20 The families of the pro-autonomy militias have also been streaming over the=20 border to the relative safety of West Timor, and many in the East Timorese=20 Chinese community have moved to the calm of Kupang, Surabaya and Denpasar.=20 Most will wait until well after the August 30 ballot on independence to=20 decide whether or not to return.=20 The East Timor exodus has ripped apart the social fabric of the stricken=20 territory. Filomeno Bianco, an elementary school teacher in Dili, estimated=20 that 4000 teachers had fled the province, of a total of 7000. Most were=20 Indonesian, and most were high school teachers.=20 The Merpati airline agent in central Dili agreed that thousands of=20 Indonesians had gone, and she wasn't sure whether they would return. An=20 official said between 70 and 80 Indonesians flew out every day, with no=20 return flight booked.=20 In Delta Comoro, a housing subdivision near Dili, which was favoured by=20 Indonesian civil servants, more than 20 houses have been let to foreigners o= r=20 sold to East Timorese, said an official in the subdivision's office.=20 Many common people from Indonesia were not leaving.=20 "We will stay here, we sell our cigarettes here, we live here," said one.=20 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 12 Aug 1999 jam 21:00:16 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
