A top-level delegation from the United Nations Security Council is due to fly to Indonesia tonight to press for action against the escalating violence in East Timor. Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands forced out of their homes by militiamen opposed to independence. The five-member mission, which was organised after an emergency Security Council meeting, will meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for last-minute talks before leaving.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, has called for urgent action to protect the East Timorese threatened by massacre. Mrs. Robinson said that the international community must act now or regret yet another tragedy it could have prevented. Portugal has called for immediate United Nations intervention to help stop violence. Indonesia's Chief of Police has admitted that the security situation in East Timor is "out of control." The American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, has urged Indonesia to put an end to the escalating the violence in the territory or let the international community deal with the issue. Australian combat troops have been put on standby.
Earlier, United Nations officials reported that thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes in East Timor by Indonesian soldiers and militiamen opposed to independence. Hundreds are reported to have been killed since last week's ballot in favour of independence from Indonesia. UN officials are considering a total withdrawal from the territory.
The head of the Indonesian armed forces has said that Jakarta is considering giving East Timor special emergency status, as violence spiralled out of control there. General Wiranto said that he was sending three extra battalions of troops to the territory. Indonesia already has 15,000 military and police based in the territory, some of whom have been accused of supporting the militias. Pro-independence sources say that hundreds of people have been killed by the militias since Saturday, when a ballot showed an overwhelming majority of its people supported independence from Indonesian rule.
This morning, pro-Indonesian militias opened fire on Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Carlos Belo, and Australia's envoy to the territory, John McCarthy. Bishop Belo was later evacuated by helicopter to the eastern city of Baucau, as militiamen forced out about 6,000 refugees who had sheltering in his residence. The East Timorese independence leader and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jose Ramos Horta, said that the United Nations security council's decision to send a mission to the territory was a positive step as long as it was translated into action.
RTÉ journalist, Gerry O'Callaghan, who is in Dili, has said that the militias and the Indonesian Army are burning people out of their homes. International pressure is mounting for the UN to intervene in the former Portuguese colony, and there was growing fear among investors the West could cut its aid lifeline over East Timor. Australia has begun evacuating non-essential UN personnel from the territory because of the violence.
