----------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------

Diario de Noticias, October 8, 1999

DISINFORMATION, MISLEAD AND CONTRADICTIONS

by Gloria Lucas

The tragedy in East Timor caused, naturally, deads. Only that,
more than one month past after the beginning of the barbarism that
devastated this earth, nobody gets to say how many.

The Commission of Human Rights of East Timor, recently-formed in
Dili, asked on how many died in the territory, answered: It is
"still early to say, but according to our calculations they will
be perhaps more than a hundred". Some of the bodies were found by
journalists that, in the first days after the arrival of Interfet,
became truly "hunters of corpses", others are located by the
population. UNAMET with the inexistence of experts in forensic
medicine, has been extremely cautious in confirming that those
deaths resulted from violent acts.

And when a Timorese is interrogated on the eventual deaths, the
most probable is to obtain an answer of the type "I heard they say
but I was not there to see". Still Yesterday, in Liquica, was the
inevitable question placed to a member of the CNRT: head many died
here"? Respond:"Oh, yes, many". How many? I don't "know, I cannot
make a calculation". Did corpses appear? "No. But formerly, they
lied down in the pond of Mubara". Did a lot of people disappear? I
don't still "know how to say".

Really, it is not easy to know. With part of the population taking
refuge in the mountains and other part still deported for West
Timor, it is practically impossible to count the dead and
disappeared. In the middle of everithing this, naturally, they are
also always a lot of exaggeration and disinformation.

The famous well of Manuel Carrascalao's house began by having 70
bodies inside, one day later already only nine and later who said
that , after all, it was just only one.

The same will be for somebody to say on the numbers of the deaths
from the hunger among the refugees. Of among the many to whom DN
asked the question if "in your area somebody had dued due to lack
of supplies of food", just a person, in Cairui, answered
affirmatively: "Yes. Buried here an old one and two small boys."

Nobody puts in cause the terrible human tragedy that the Timorese
lived, in a particularly serious way during the month of
September, soon after the popular consultation. But everything
appears so that the number of victims cannot be as high as
initially thought.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Didistribusikan tgl. 27 Oct 1999 jam 11:26:49 GMT+1
oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://www.Indo-News.com/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kirim email ke