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Sydney Unionists Forced to Leave Dili

Two Sydney trade unionists were tonight in Darwin after being forced out of the UNAMET compound in Dili, leaving just 40 United Nation officials in the devastated capital.

	HT Lee

HT Lee, a media officer with the CFMEU Construction Division and regular Workers Online reporter and Liam Phelan, a freelance journalist and MEAA activist, were part of the human shield who had refused to flee East Timor during the week.

But Lee has told Workers Online all the remining journalists were today told they had to agree to return to Darwin or be expelled from the compound.

They had been prepared to stay as part of the skeleton force, to provide refuge for the Timorese who had taken refuge there as militias raized the city.

"The people of Timor have been betrayed by the international community once again," Lee said from Darwin.

"As we were moving out of Dili we could see buildings being burned to the ground - over 70 per cent of the city is now burnt.

"It's just unnecessary mass destruction, we could see militia roaming around with weapons, totally unchecked by the military."

Lee says while they were given guarantees that those in the compound would be given safe passage to Dare, near the FALNTIL base, there were grave concerns for the people of East Timor as a whole.

"There is a grave shortage of water and medical supplies," he says. "Unless supplies can be shipped in there will be serious problems in terms of starvation and outbreak of diseases."

Earlier in the week, UN staff and journalists told UN Mission Chief Ian Martin that they would not be evacuated on Thursday as a final withdrawal was being planned. A 24-hour delay in the withdrawal was extended when supplies arrived on Thursday.

HT Lee told Workers Online how Indonesian soldiers had forced him and other journalists from a Dili Hotel to the compound earlier this week. "We were marched to the UN compound," he said.

Describing the situation in Dili as "a sheer rein of terror" Lee says the feeling within the compound is that only a UN-sanctioned international peace-keeping force could restore order.

"There is no civil war occurring in East Timor," he says, "the violence is being created by the army."

This story will be updated during the week by HT Lee

   Click here to listen to an audio stream of HT�s last report from Dili

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 30 contents

»	Ramos Horta Calls for Workers� Support
»	Sydney Unionists Forced to Leave Dili
»	TWU Questions Timor Action
»	SOCOG Called to Cancel Indonesian Contracts
»	Union Busters To Go Cyber
»	Not-So Aussie Post for Sydney 2000
»	Horror Tales - the Nights of the Living Dead
»	Asbestos Sufferer Bequests $30,000 To Union
»	Woodlawn Workers Edge Towards Justice
»	Telstra Shareholders Asked to Block Union-Busters
»	Reith Letter to be Revealed in Conspiracy Case
»	Shock: Tele Thumbs Up For New Years Eve Holiday
»	Tales From the Picket Line

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	League's Working Class Takeover
»	Proverb for the Cyber Age
»	Postcard from the Emu
»	Mind Your Language
»	The Other Young Speaker
»	Timor: A Call to Action
»	A Letter to Downer

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