ICRC launches relief operation in East Timor

Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) began an operation on Friday to assist the victims of the violence in East Timor. Two aircraft flew into Dili with two tonnes of rice and 11 tonnes of high-protein food aboard. They arrived from Surabaya, on the island of Java, where the ICRC has in recent days set up a logistics base with stocks of food, medicine and other essential supplies.

The operation continued today with a third flight to Dili. The organization is encountering logistical difficulties in the East Timorese capital such as inadequate means of unloading the aircraft and a lack of vehicles.

Meanwhile, the two ICRC delegates who returned to East Timor on 14 September to assess the situation and possible ways of coming to the aid of the numerous victims went to Dare, about 10 kilometres outside Dili, where they found some 90,000 displaced people living in the open in extremely difficult conditions. Logistical problems prevented the delegates from providing them with more than a small amount of food.

Dili itself has been devastated, with many public and private buildings looted and burnt to the ground. The atmosphere remains very tense. The two delegates also went to the city's civilian hospital, which they found had ceased to function because it had been emptied of supplies and equipment. Six volunteer nurses have remained to care for the 37 patients there.

Over the coming days the ICRC will do everything possible to develop the current operation, with emphasis on dispatching food, medical supplies and other essential items. To this end a ship is being loaded in the port of Surabaya and the Norwe gian Red Cross is sending a field hospital. A team of 20 delegates, including medical, sanitation, logistics and construction experts, is standing by to go to the territory as soon as conditions permit.