Timor death count appears lower than initial estimates
Copyright © 1999 Nando Media
Copyright © 1999Associated Press
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
DILI, East Timor (October 2, 1999 1:28 p.m. EDT
http://www.nandotimes.com) - The scale of the slaughter in East Timor
can be known only when international observers secure the rest of the
devastated region, the head of the U.N. mission said Saturday.
But the number of victims found so far is nowhere near estimates of up
to 10,000 dead made by international organizations and Timorese
activists at the height of the militia attacks that followed an
overwhelming vote for independence from Indonesia on Aug. 30.
Fewer than 30 bodies have been found in and around the capital, Dili.
Villagers pointed out the latest three to reporters, taking them to
the rock-covered mounds where they had buried people allegedly slain
and dumped by militias.
This weekend, a Timorese rights group was asked to estimate the
overall death toll and ventured 100 - the lowest figure offered by all
but Indonesia, which claims about 90 were killed.
Rights groups say they have accounts corroborated by multiple
witnesses of army-backed pro-Indonesian militias slaughtering dozens
of people at a time.
"It's impossible to assess at this point. That will only be revealed
as investigations continue throughout the territory," David Wimhurst,
chief of the U.N. mission, said Saturday.
U.N. humanitarian workers said eastern districts are now safe enough
from the pro-Indonesian militias to start near-daily convoys of aid.
But other parts of the territory remain beyond the control of the
peacekeepers who arrived Sept. 20.
Most aid workers and reporters fled East Timor during the height of
last month's violence, chased away by attacks that often targeted
outsiders. Fears of mass slaughter helped prompt the international
military intervention.
International organizations estimated the death toll at up to 7,000.
East Timor's Nobel Peace Prize-winning cleric, Bishop Carlos Belo,
said from exile it could be as high as 10,000.
Some prominent people who reportedly were killed actually survived -
including the parents of independence leader Jose Alexandre Gusmao,
whom nuns managed to hide in a Dili convent despite searches by
Indonesian forces.
In Kosovo, where the death toll also was estimated at 10,000,
returning refugees quickly directed journalists to mass graves across
the province that contained scores or hundreds of bodies.
One possible difference is that in East Timor, the sea is never far
away. Over the weekend, an East Timorese took journalists to a beach
where he said militias piled hundreds of bodies on crude rafts and
sank them in the ocean.
He could do little more than point to the spot where he said the
corpses disappeared.
It is also unknown how systematic body disposal may have been. Rights
groups say the territory-wide purge was well-planned, with refugees
recounting militias working from lists as they singled out victims.
The alleged mass deportations that followed the vote appeared
remarkably efficient. Relays of trucks were used in an alleged
expulsion that sent an estimated 230,000 of the territory's 850,000
people in just weeks to Indonesian West Timor, where outsiders have
been denied free access to refugees.
"The evidence we've collected points to a systematic and organized
action by the militias," said Gillian Nevins, spokeswoman for Amnesty
International in Darwin, Australia.
Amnesty urged an impartial and independent human-rights and war-crimes
investigation for East Timor. Indonesia has rejected a U.N.
investigation and says it will conduct its own.
Five U.N. rights investigators will arrive in East Timor in coming
days, Wimhurst said.
Belo, the Timorese bishop, reportedly planned to leave Portugal on
Sunday en route back to his homeland. Safety fears have kept East
Timor's independence leaders away until now.
Soldiers of the international force have started a push in both
directions in recent days as refugees return to cities and towns from
the mountains.
On Saturday, the last family left a camp 15 miles outside Dili that
had housed thousands of refugees. They stayed that long only so a
priest could preside at the wedding between one of their daughters and
another refugee.
Copyright © 1999 Nando Media