East Timor - ACT: 20-Sep-99</titel></head> <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" VLINK="#408080"> <img src="/images/cidism.gif" alt="CIDI" WIDTH="60"> <hr align=left width=600> <PRE> <h3>Action by Churches Together (ACT) East Timor Geneva, September 20, 1999 </h3> ACT builds shelter for refugees in West Timor An estimated quarter of the East Timorese population (some 200,000 people) has fled to West Timor since pro-Indonesian militias unleashed their reign of killing and terror on September 4. Another 190,000 people are believed to be displaced within East Timor. ACT members in the town of Kupang in West Timor have started building 70 shelters each of which will provide shelter for about 10 refugee families. The shelers are to be equipped with everything from beds to kitchens and toilets. Food will be provided for the particularly needy - i.e. predominantly children and mothers. According to ACT aid workers, refugees continue to arrive in Kupang, where as many as one third of the accumulated population are refugees. Refugees who have particular reasons to fear for their lives stay with private host families rather than in camps. The security situation in Kupang as well as in the area with the greatest number of refugees, Atambua on the border with East Timor, remains precarious with a strong presence of armed pro-Indonesian militias in and around the camps. ACT members in Atambua are also assisting refugees with basic needs such as shelter, blankets, food and health services but recent program updates from there are not available. The situation of those who stayed in East Timor will become clearer over the next couple of days. An international peacekeeping-force is now arriving in the territorial capitol Dili and by the end of the day today, is expected to number 2,500 of the 7,500 soldiers due to arrive in total. It is expected that these forces will spread through out East Timor and provide basic security and thus enable humanitarian work to begin on a larger scale. The World Food Program will re-start its food drops to some of the displaced and isolated populations in East Timor by Tuesday using two cargo-planes. For further information please contact: Nils Carstensen (mobile ++ 41 79 358 3171). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Action by Churches Together (ACT) is a worldwide network of churches and their related agencies, meeting human need through co-ordinated emergency response. The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ecumenical Centre Phone: ++41-22-791.60.33 150, route de Ferney Fax: ++41-22-791.65.06 1211 Geneva 2 Telex: 415 730 OIK CH Switzerland <A HREF="http://www.act-intl.org/act/">http://www.act-intl.org/act/</A> distributed by - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Volunteers in Technical Assistance sitreps nat-dsr web: www.vita.org appeal fireline - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - </PRE> <UL> </UL> <P> <SMALL> <EM> </EM> </SMALL> </BODY> </HTML>