| Features | May 28, 2006

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Indonesia begins evacuation of citizens from Timor Leste The Jakarta Post, Agencies, Jakarta Indonesia began to evacuate its citizens from Timor Leste Saturday, airlifting 130 people, mostly women and children, from riot-torn Dili to the East Nusa Tenggara capital of Kupang. The first group of evacuees arrived at El Tari airport in Kupang on a Hercules military transport plane at 2:50 p.m. "We feel free, at last. We are no longer anxious about what could happen to us in Dili, where the situation is changing from bad to worse," a mother carrying her baby told Antara upon her arrival in Kupang. Indonesia will evacuate an estimated 3,000 citizens from its former province. Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and declared it the country's 27th province in 1976. It became independent in 1999. The Indonesian military has readied Hercules planes and three warships to retrieve its citizens, who are stranded in Dili and other places ravaged by a wave of violence pitting former soldiers against government security forces. The head of East Nusa Tenggara's Social Affairs office, Frans Salem, said people from East Nusa Tenggara were sent home yesterday, while those from other provinces had to stay another day or two for transportation to be arranged. An Air Force officer in charge of the evacuation told Antara that it was difficult to remove people sheltering at the Indonesian embassy because of the absence of public transportation to and from Dili's Comoro Airport. All Indonesian nationals leaving Dili are subject to checks by foreign security authorities. The deputy chief of Kupang Navy base, Col. Widodo, said the Navy has readied two warships to leave for Dili at any time. The situation in Timor Leste remained tense Saturday, the Associated Press reported. Militias armed with machetes set dozens of houses on fire in Dili, sending women and children running from their homes as foreign troops worked to stem violence that threatens to plunge the tiny nation into civil war. Hundreds of panicked residents sought shelter in churches, schools and embassies, as Australian troops arrived in tanks to try to restore order. The number of casualties wasn't known, but several ambulances raced through the streets with sirens blaring. The violence triggered by the March firing of 600 soldiers -nearly half the 1,400-member army - is seen as the most serious crisis East Timor has faced since it broke from Indonesian rule in 1999. The impoverished nation received millions of dollars in international aid over the last seven years, much of it focused on building up the military. After staging deadly riots last month, the dismissed troops fled the seaside capital, Dili, setting up positions in the surrounding hills and threatening guerrilla war if they were not reinstated. They started ambushing soldiers in the capital Tuesday, sparking days of pitched battles with the military that have so far killed 23 people. The dispute, fueled by simmering tensions in a nation divided along east-west lines, has also drawn in ordinary citizens, some frustrated by poverty and unemployment. Bands of angry youths were picking up arms. Some, it appeared, were bent on settling old scores. "There is no solution," Priest Jose Antonio said at a church where hundreds of people have sought shelter. Hatred between the warring factions runs long and deep, he said, "and this is an opportunity for revenge." The dismissed soldiers are largely from the country's west, while the military's leadership originates from the east. Many of the renegade soldiers are viewed as having been sympathetic to Indonesia when its former province was fighting for independence, said Damien Kingsbury, an Australian academic and expert on Indonesia and Timor Leste. They claim they were denied promotions and coveted assignments because of discrimination in the armed forces. The foreign minister said Friday he believed the issues that triggered the violence were "still capable of resolution." "Despite our situation, I have continued to talk to all aggrieved parties in the hope that we can all find a lasting, peaceful solution," said Jose Ramos Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. printer friendly
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