Aid for West Timor suspended

Refugees crammed into a stadium in Kupang, West Timor

By Richard Galpin East Timor

United Nations officials in Indonesia say all international aid agencies have now suspended their assistance programmes to East Timorese refugees living in camps in West Timor.

On Wednesday the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, announced it was suspending its assistance programme after three of its staff were attacked whilst working in one of the camps.

The UN has accused pro-Indonesian militias based in the camps of carrying out the attack.

Medecins Sans Frontieres and CARE are among the international aid agencies which have suspended their aid programmes in West Timor, a UN spokesman told the BBC.

The pro-Jakarta militias remain heavily armed

They have been helping the UN distribute food in the camps, as well as providing medical and other forms of assistance.

While some are expected to resume their aid programmes next week, it is not yet clear for how long the suspension of UN assistance will continue.

Serious consequences

If it lasts more than a few weeks it could have very serious consequences for more than 100,000 refugees who depend on the handouts.

A senior UNHCR official has now arrived in West Timor to assess the security situation following the attack on UN staff earlier this week.

The three aid workers were badly beaten and one was almost killed. The UN says this was the most serious in a series of incidents which it blames on the pro-Jakarta militias living in the camps.

The militia were behind much of the violence in East Timor last year following the independence vote.

UN warning

The head of the UN in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, has warned that the situation with the militias in West Timor is close to anarchy. In a BBC interview, he said the Indonesian Government was losing control of parts of the region to the militia gangs.

A delegation of senior Indonesian officials held talks with Mr de Mello this week and pledged to increase the number of troops and police deployed in West Timor.

The Indonesian Government has already said it will close down all the camps within the next few months.

Meanwhile, the UN has told the BBC that a militia leader who had infiltrated into East Timor had been captured by UN peacekeepers earlier this week.

The militias have now threatened to attack more UN staff in West Timor unless their leader is released, the UN says.

The militias opposed the UN-sponsored independence vote in East Timor last year and moved across into West Timor with the refugees after the result was announced.