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The Picture In East Timor According To The BBC
(Special Scoop News Monitor report)
UN compound in Dili is surrounded and will be evacuated tomorrow morning.
The Bishop of Baukau is reported to have been wounded while protecting refugees who were seeking his protection – he has now fled into the hills.
A massacre of 100 civilians in a church at Suai has been reported but not confirmed.
In hills Falantil – the indpendence army – is sheltering refugees.
10s of thousands have been evacuated from East Timor to West Timor and other islands. 65,000 refugees are already in West Timor according to the UNHCR and 100,000 more are expected.
There are reports that 10s of thousands have been assembled in West Timor to repopulate East Timor.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says that East Timor is looking increasingly like Cambodia under Pol Pot.
Pictures of Union Jack being burnt by students in Jakarta – (commentator said it was an Australian flag).
Jonathan Head: Jakarta – the government is embattled but to accept UN troops would be very difficult. This is a government in dissarray. This is a country that has turned its back on the world and put its head in the sand. The Security Council are scheduled to meet with General Wiranto shortly – he is someone who could potentially do something. We need to think about those seeking refuge in the UN compound – many will be on the security services assassination lists.
Joanna Jolly: Dili – we are to be evacuated tomorrow. We will take local staff and families with us. The fate of the refugees in the compound is still being discussed. We do not yet know what will happen to the refugees in the compound. The military and police have been driving the East Timorese onto ships and trucks and out of the country at gun-point.
NZ PM
Jenny Shipley: Auckland – New Zealand has given a clear
indication about the sense of anguish felt over the plight
of the East Timorese. There is a clear willingness to do
something if there is a UN mandate and Indonesian consent.
We need to wait and see.
Alastair Thompson
Scoop Publisher
Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.
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