The commander of international peacekeepers in East Timor said yesterday that western districts of the territory had been cleansed of their inhabitants by a systematic campaign of destruction. A senior UN official said up to half a million people remained unaccounted for.
As aid agencies geared up to begin repatriating refugees from Indonesian-controlled West Timor, Maj-Gen Peter Cosgrove, said Australian troops deployed in the border region had found numerous villages burned out and abandoned.
"There has plainly been a concerted effort to burn and deny (shelter) in that area," Gen Cosgrove said. "It would appear that many of those villages have been depopulated."
Commanders of Interfet (the UN-backed International Force for East Timor) have little doubt the damage inflicted on the region was the work of anti-independence militias and the departing Indonesian military. But what happened to the tens of thousands of people who lived in the region, as in other parts of East Timor, remains unclear.
Little evidence has emerged to support suggestions the militias killed thousands after East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence on August 30th. To date, fewer than 50 bodies have been discovered by the peacekeepers and journalists, but there have been numerous reports of corpses being dumped at sea.
Refugees have recounted how the militias rounded up women and children and forced them across the border.
According to Indonesia, some 250,000 East Timorese are in Indonesian-controlled West Timor. Interfet estimates there are around 100,000 in the East Timorese capital, Dili. A UN humanitarian co-ordinator said that left up to 500,000 unaccounted for. The population figure includes tens of thousands of Indonesian settlers who left before the vote.
In addition, the pro-independence guerrilla group Falintil says 100,000 people are safe in an eastern area it now controls.
The guerrillas' commanders have become increasingly frustrated at Interfet which they say has been too slow in securing outlying areas. Aid efforts will be stepped up yesterday with the distribution of enough rice to feed 45,000 people for a month, but, as with the bulk of the relief delivered to date, this will be only in Dili.
Concern for the safety of the refugees is running high following reports that the militias are active in the camps and that the military was preventing anybody crossing into East Timor by road. Jakarta said it would not renege on its agreement to allow repatriation to begin. Nonetheless, it is likely to be weeks before refugees start moving back in large numbers.
"We are looking at starting slowly using aircraft and boats as we develop both the system and confidence with our interlocuters in West Timor," the UN co-ordinator said.
Japan has announced a donation of $100 million to help developing nations join the Australian-led force. Troops from Thai land and South Korea left yesterday to join the force.
Meanwhile, in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, two petrol bombs were hurled at an Australian school, but there were no casualties or damage.
The attack was the latest against Australian property in Indonesia amid a souring of relations over the East Timor crisis.
Australia's embassy in Jakarta has also been hit by Molotov cocktails and shot at several times. Some Australian firms have withdrawn expatriate staff from Indonesia for safety reasons.
Indonesia has suspended security ties with Australia.
Four people died yesterday in renewed religious violence in Indonesia's eastern island of Ambon.