austraLasia
1571
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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