East Timorese refugees plead for aid workers to return as food runs out

KUPANG, Indonesia - With little medicine and dwindling food supplies, East Timorese refugees in squalid camps throughout Indonesian West Timor pleaded Sunday for the return of international aid workers.

But U.N. refugee agency operations head Bernard Kerblat said that despite the extreme suffering of the refugees, aid workers would not return to the territory until all pro-Indonesian militias are disbanded.

About 400 U.N. officials and other humanitarian workers fled West Timor on Thursday after three of their foreign colleagues and three civilians were slaughtered in a pro-Indonesian militia rampage a day earlier.

The evacuation meant the cutoff of food, medical and other aid to about 90,000 refugees.

''We need aid,'' said Natalia Maria da Costa, as she cradled her 18-month-old baby in the hot and dusty Tuapukan camp on the outskirts of the regional capital Kupang. ''The most important thing is food for the children.''

She said most refugees' food supplies would run out in about three days and a promise of rice from Indonesia's government was yet to materialize.

On Friday, Indonesia's Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri said she will soon send 100 tons of rice to the region, and local officials in Kupang said they had enough food for the next six weeks.

Other refugees said they were also facing an acute shortage of medical supplies after an international relief organization's medical clinic had closed.

About 250,000 refugees fled their homes in East Timor for the camps in the western half of the island a year ago after pro-Indonesia militiamen went on a frenzy of destruction, a reaction to East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia in a U.N.-sponsored ballot. West Timor remains an Indonesian territory.

When international peacekeepers arrived in September 1999 to restore order, the militiamen also fled to the west. With the apparent backing of sections of Indonesia's military, they rule the camps and use them as bases for attacks on U.N. peacekeepers in East Timor.

Two-thirds of the original refugees have since returned to East Timor. Others remain, either wanting to stay or complaining that militia gangs will kill them if they try to leave.

In East Timor, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Ellen Hanson said Sunday that there were reports of militia thugs scouring refugee camps in search of anyone associated with the world body and other international relief agencies.