Sir, - When the East Timorese cast their historic vote for independence last August they put their trust in the International community, relying on it for protection from the expected backlash from Indonesian troops and militias. Sadly, when this backlash came the International community was found wanting and weeks of unchecked death and destruction on a grand scale followed before the UN force was mobilised and then only at the invitation of the Indonesian Government. People fled into the mountains and anywhere they could to avoid the violence.
Many were forcibly transported to Indonesian West Timor and it is believed that 130,000 of them still languish in camps run by the Indonesians. Conditions in these camps are reported to be appalling and hundreds of people have died.
The UN must now have the courage to go in to West Timor to rescue these people. Either they are on top of the situation there or they are not. Either they have the courage to come to the aid of refugees in West Timor or they don't.
The least they could do is negotiate a means of getting aid to these unfortunate people. Surely, in the week when Kofi Annan has publicly accepted that the UN's inactivity was to blame for the Serb atrocities at Srebrenica, the UN is not going to make the same mistake again. - Yours, etc.,
John O'Shea, GOAL, PO Box 19 Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.