/** reg.easttimor: 3448.0 **/
** Topic: CNRT: 72 hours is too long...we are dying - AND - "I saw the Indones **
** Written 10:24 PM Sep 12, 1999 by gheard@surf.net.au in cdp:reg.easttimor **
From: Geoff Heard <gheard@surf.net.au>
Subject: CNRT: 72 hours is too long...we are dying - AND - "I saw the Indonesian soldiers decapitate my brother-in-law..."
CNRT National Council for Timorese Resistance MEDIA RELEASE For immediate release: 1430 AustralianEST, Monday 13 September 1999
CNRT: Cry from the East Timor bush - 72 hours is too long...we are dying now.
Perth, Australia (Monday 13 September): "Help us, please! 72 hours is too long...we are dying now."
Those were the words Domingos De Oliveira heard today when an independence activist emerged from his hideout in the bush and slipped into Dili to make a hurried telephone call through the barely functioning telephone network.
The activist, who cannot be named for security reasons, told how he had dodged soldiers who were still roaming Dili, killing, looting and burning.
He called on the United Nations to get troops into East Timor with all speed. "The Indonesian soldiers will keep killing us, looting our homes, and burning them down, until the United Nations troops come and take control," he said.
His estimate was that the rate of killing was the same as it has been for days -- there was no let-up.
The activist also said that he had passed the Dare refugee camp on the way into Dili -- and confirmed that the Indonesian military had for an unknown reason halted the attack they were beginning yesterday. They were still surrounding the camp in which 30,000 or more sick and starving refugees are huddled, without food, medicine or adequate shelter.
The caller asked for urgent supplies of food, medicine, bedding and shelter materials to be air dropped, if that was the only way, to the main refugee areas at Dare, Wemori, Laga, Ermera and Viqueque.
"People are dying now. If they have to wait another day for help, many more will die," he said. He added that he hoped he could dodge the Indonesian military thugs still killing and looting, and slip back into the safety of the bush.
IN SYDNEY:
The seven hunger strikers led by Rosa Maria CarrascalÔo, outside the United Nations Information Office in York Street, Sydney, plan to maintain their strike and their nightly masses for the innocent people of East Timor, until humanitarian aid starts to be delivered to the people of East Timor.
"We are asking everyone to please remember these suffering people. Phone your local member of Parliament to demand urgent action to help these people. They are innocent victims of a murderous military dictatorship. Regardless of your religion, please say a prayer for them and light a candle to help keep the flame of faith and life alive in East Timor."
FURTHER INFORMATION:
PERTH: Domingos De Oliveira, CNRT Spokesperson & Secretary-General of UDT. Tel: +61 8 9384 7943
SYDNEY: Rosa Maria CarrascalÔo. Tel: 0414 820 172
Issued on behalf of CNRT by Geoffrey Heard & Associates, Melbourne, Australia GH&A provides this service free to aid the suffering people of East Timor.
. . . . . . . .
CNRT National Council for Timorese Resistance MEDIA RELEASE For immediate release: 1440 AustralianEST, Monday 13 September 1999
CNRT: "I saw the Indonesian soldiers decapitate my brother-in-law then chop him into pieces."
Perth, Australia (Monday 13 September): Late last night, Domingos De Oliveira received the first news of the fate of a fellow independence activist who was trapped in the inferno of Dili after the declaration of the UN ballot on Saturday 4 September.
In a shaking, emotion-charged voice, the caller from "somewhere in East Timor" told him: "I saw the Indonesian soldiers decapitate my brother-in-law then chop him into pieces.
"We were hiding in the house [in Dili[; the soldiers found him, I was lucky they did not find me too. But I could see them through a crack. They cut of his head, then cut his body into pieces.
"I was able to jump out the window and run away. It was a miracle I could escape."
The two men had been separated from their families when the Indonesian military began their rampage through Dili, targeting the independence leaders and independence strongholds after the UN announced 78.5 percent of East Timorese had voted for independence.
Mr De Oliveira had been in East Timor in the days leading up to the ballot on Monday 30 August, campaigning shoulder to shoulder with the two.
The two men cannot be named yet. The whereabouts of their wives and children are not known. It is assumed they have been captured and transported to the concentration camps by the Indonesians.
Naming their husbands would make them targets for the murderous Indonesian soldiers and their militia auxiliaries who are already terrorising the camps.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Domingos De Oliveira, CNRT Spokesperson & Secretary-General of UDT. Tel: +61 8 9384 7943
Issued on behalf of CNRT by Geoffrey Heard & Associates, Melbourne, Australia GH&A provides this service free to aid the suffering people of East Timor.
Geoffrey Heard GH&A Public Relations Tel: +61 3 9583 0788 Email: gheard@surf.net.au Free East Timor from the Indonesian military's murderous grasp
** End of text from cdp:reg.easttimor **