EAST TIMOR: DILI: LOOTERS BREAK INTO COFFEE WAREHOUSE

Описание: (25 Sep 1999) English/Nat

Hundreds of East Timorese refugees have broken into a coffee warehouse in Dili and looted everything they could carry, with international peacekeepers apparently choosing not to interfere.

The main targets on Saturday were the bright orange tarpaulins used to wrap and seal the 50-kilogramme (110-pound) bags of coffee beans grown in East Timor's mountainous interior.

Highly prized by international merchants like Starbucks, coffee is one of the few cash exports that the poor region has.

Many of the looters were recently returned refugees who had fled the capital Dili during a murderous rampage by anti-independence militias after the East Timorese overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia.

The looters said they need the plastic tarpaulins, used to wrap bags of coffee at this coffee warehouse, for shelter.

Most of Dili has been torched over the last three weeks, and everything from food and water to shelter and electricity is in short supply.

The looting went on Friday as the Australian-led multinational force continued to impose a tight cordon on parts of the capital, going door-to-door in search of suspected militia members.

A U-N spokesman detailed the damage done to various towns in East Timor by the militias and departing Indonesian troops.

(English)
"In Vikeke, which came off the most lightly, it's estimated that about 20 per cent of the town has been destroyed. The United Nations regional headquarters there has been totally destroyed. In Dilor, Los Palos and in both places (there's) 75 per cent damage to those areas. Lorau appears to be almost totally destroyed, with heavy damage. And Manatuto also appears to be very heavily destroyed."
SUPER CAPTION: David Wimhurst, UNAMET spokesman

Saturday's looting almost seemed to be a family event.

Coffee was being hauled away on the backs of anyone who could carry it, including 10-year-old children who were hunched over from the weight.

Others carried away scales, boxes of twine, trolleys and furniture.

While some walked away, others tossed their loot into trucks and cars or the backs of motorbikes.

The site was an old Portuguese-built complex of buildings with rusting roofs and whitewashed walls - one of the few warehouses that escaped the militias' arson campaign.

In the city centre near the port, it's just 1-hundred metres (yards) from a concentration of Australian troops and 2-hundred and 50 metres (yards) from Indonesian military headquarters.

Another food warehouse nearby was looted on Wednesday, but Australian troops stopped that raid.

About 1-thousand multinational combat troops, backed by armoured personnel carriers and two Blackhawk helicopters, sealed off several city streets on Friday in a huge display of strength.

The force is gradually building up to its expected 7-thousand-500-man strength.

The Australian officer commanding the operation said several, what he called "hard-core militia" members had been detained and some weapons seized.

Earlier, the peacekeepers announced they had arrested a leader of an anti-independence militia suspected of committing atrocities in the aftermath of the independence vote.

The Chief of Staff of the peacekeeping force said security situation in the province was improving.

(English)
"There is a clear sense of improving security in the area. And as we continue with our expansion operations we obviously look to that improving security situation increasing throughout the territory."
SUPER CAPTION: Colonel Mark Kelly, Chief of Staff of peacekeeping force


But they found it empty.






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