East Timor: reporting the reports, and an
Australian response
DILI: 1st June 2006 -- Reporting on events in Dili at the
moment can be tricky - the Salesian Family in the city (in
international eyes the focus is all on Comoro, but there are other
members of the Salesian Family in Dili) is faced with a calamitous
situation and various unreported and unreportable events occur which
austraLasia often receives firsthand, though with the proviso that they
had best not be reported. The reality is that the men and women
on the ground there are facing up to quite dangerous situations,
dealing with them in ways that make us proud of their moral and
spiritual - and sometimes physical - strength. This includes
helping disarm and 'talk down' people who have been intent on killing
one another.
One the other hand, the international press,
including Catholic agencies, is also reporting these events. Only
yesterday I read another version of item #1570 drawing, presumably,
from the same source; the version came from a reputable agency - in
fact a Vatican one - but it was not accurate in a range of
details. So, in the interests of good reporting, we here at
austraLasia do try to validate our sources and to inform the Salesian
Family in our EAO region of both facts and opinion where the latter is
being expressed by people who are actually there.
The Australian Catholic News is following events
closely, with people in Dili. Today they report a Salesian at
Comoro who describes his nation as "a divided people gripped in
fear". He continues by saying "We don't know who the bad people
are and who are our friends". He describes people as "suffering"
inside the Centre. "There are a lot of people squeezed together inside
a small space with no water and little food". In fact there could
be as many as 10,000 people squeezed into that space, one fifth of the
number regularly touted as refugees within their own city.
Salesian Missions in Australia have launched a
nationwide appeal for humanitarian assistance to East Timor. "The
Timorese need our help now more than ever" says Salesian Brother
Michael Lynch, appeal coordinator and a regular visitor to East Timor.
Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI, recently returned from
Poland with the horrors of war still fresh in his mind after the
Auschwitz visit, appealed for peace in East Timor at the conclusion of
his weekly audience: peace for a nation "wracked by tension and
violence which has caused victims and destruction".
A Salesian who contacted austraLasia today indicates
that the situation is a lot calmer in Dili at the moment, and that
Portuguese troops are due to arrive in Dili within the next 24
hours. He also indicated that Ramos Horta, the Foreign Minister,
has indicated already that the election scheduled for next year will be
run by the UN. This is good news for the people, many of whom
fear massive manipulation by the ruling party and a decided lurch to
the left - further left than the Alkatiri-led government is already.
____________________________________________
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