Dakar (ICRC) – A seminar on implementing international humanitarian law will take place on 3 and 4 June in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, for the Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa and the Pacific (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and Timor-Leste).

ICRC delegates recently completed a series of visits to people held in detention facilities in Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

In just one week the number of internally displaced has increased in the Baucau district from an estimated 16,000 to 24,000 people.

A team of water and habitat specialists from the ICRC and staff from the Timor Leste Red Cross today visited the town of Baucau, 160 km east of Dili, to assess the needs of some 16,000 people who have fled there from the violence in the capital.

Geneva (ICRC) – Following initial assessments of the humanitarian needs created by the ongoing violence in Timor-Leste, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), together with the Timor-Leste Red Cross, plans to distribute relief supplies to over 60,000 internally displaced people in the country, including some 40,000 people in the capital Dili. The ICRC – which has increased its presence in Timor-Leste to nine expatriate staff over the last 10 days – will also continue providing clean water, helping to restore family links and visiting people detained in connection with the violence.

In spite of continued violence, providing drinking water and performing other humanitarian services for the displaced population in Dili is proceeding. “Stones, felled trees and burnt tyres are still barring the streets,” said Ida Bucher, head of the ICRC delegation in Timor Leste, “but these improvised checkpoints are now mostly abandoned and security is improving.”

Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Timor-Leste Red Cross are deeply concerned about the effects on people of the recent upsurge of violence in Timor Leste's capital Dili. The clashes between various entities, including police forces, the army and former members of the security forces, have led to loss of life, injuries, destruction of property and the displacement of thousands of people from their homes.

Geneva (ICRC) – On 8 May 2003, less than a year after independence, Timor-Leste has deposited with the Swiss government the instrument of accession to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949.