Sir, - Your newspaper has provided excellent coverage of the East Timor issue. It has helped the Irish public to become aware of the devastation caused by the militias and Indonesian military after the result. It has talked of the hell of the concentration camps in West Timor and the 200,000 or more Timorese whose lives are at threat there. Yet there's a story that The Irish Times and all other media haven't covered and it concerns the lives of 55,000 Timorese.
Oecussi (or Ambeno as Indonesia renamed it) is an East Timorese enclave on the north coast of Indonesian West Timor. It was the first Portuguese settlement on Timor in 1556. The population are mainly subsistence farmers and fisherman. Despite its location, it has a strong longing for independence, like the rest of East Timor. Yet the victory for independence in the popular consultation has brought only tears.
On the August 27th there was a massacre of 20 people and possibly many more by pro-autonomy militias with military and police support. After the referendum, the last foreign observers left the territory. Leaving was described by one observer as heartbreaking: "We left them to die." It's a month since the result and we still don't know if they're alive. There seems to be no political will to protect these people.
The UN has a responsibility to protect all East Timorese voters as its promised and a strong Interfet and UN presence must be established. It may be too late already to save many of the population, but the UN needs to recognise that the East Timor problem will not leave the public agenda until the last Timorese is free to live in peace in his own country. This includes the forgotten people of Oecussi. - Yours, etc.,
Oran Doyle, East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign, Dame House, Dublin 2.