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Update: 7 October 1999

(This information is available for archival purposes only. It was current as of the date given above, and has been superseded by newer updates.)

East Timor was devastated during the violence which followed free elections in which the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independent status. More violence, and possibly involuntary resettlement, threatens some 250,000 East Timorese who have fled to West Timor to escape the militias. When a Multi National Force came in to East Timor, pro-Jakarta militias moved to West Timor, intensifying the still-unresolved emergency.

UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy has issued a strong statement on the vital issue of protecting the large number of East Timorese who remain displaced in West Timor.

This week Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, issued a widely-praised plan to place the administration of East Timor in UN hands for up to three years. There would be a concerted effort to rebuild East Timor and create a basis for its survival as an independent country.

In the midst of a growing realisation that the problems facing East Timor are long term, UNICEF has launched urgently needed humanitarian programmes in both East and West Timor, centred on the health and nutritional needs of thousands of displaced children.

In mid-October, UNICEF and partners within the UN family and NGO community will undertake a major campaign to immunise children in both East and West Timor against measles.

Other health initiatives and plans to assist in re-establishing an education system in East Timor are also underway. The goal is to promote and assist in getting children who return to their homes to get back to school during November, if possible.

UNICEF's history in the region

UNICEF has worked to help children in both East and West Timor for nearly 20 years. It has continued to maintain a presence in West Timor, based in Kupang, and has opened a new office at Atambua on the East/West Timor border, supported by a staging centre in Darwin, Australia. In Dili, UNICEF has secured temporary offices, staff lodging and storage facilities. The agency's premises were looted and burned in the violence following East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence in early September.

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