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UNICEF delivers new relief items to West Timor

Monday, 27 September 1999: Using two Hercules C-130 transport planes chartered from the Indonesian Air Force, UNICEF delivered 28 tonnes of baby food, tents, jerry cans and water tanks to Kupang, West Timor on Sunday. It was UNICEF's third large delivery of relief supplies to the island in four days.
On Monday and Tuesday (27 and 28 September), local UNICEF staff will ferry the new relief items by truck to displaced persons camps throughout West Timor, where some 200,000 refugees from East Timor are located.

"Getting the relief supplies to these camps is very important, but UNICEF remains concerned about the overall situation of children and women in West Timor," said Stephen Woodhouse, Area Representative for UNICEF. "It remains difficult for relief agencies to get complete and unhindered access to the people in these camps and to offer needed services such as psychosocial counselling."

Since the mass movement of people into West Timor began in early September, UNICEF has provided a steady supply of relief items to the camps, including several tonnes of baby food and thousands of jerry cans, blankets and cooking and eating utensils.

Yesterday's shipment to Kupang was the third multi-ton delivery of relief supplies by UNICEF in four days. On Thursday, UNICEF established a tenuous "land bridge" between West and East Timor, trucking 1.5 tonnes of baby food from Atambua, West Timor to the Dili region in East Timor. On Saturday, a UNICEF air shipment from Darwin landed in Dili carrying 17 tonnes of supplies, including blankets, jerry cans, baby food, and 60 medical kits (each able to serve 10,000 people for three months).

The Sunday relief flights to Kupang included:
  • 20 tonnes of baby food – enough to serve 20,000 infants for two weeks
  • 120 family-size tents, each capable of holding 12 persons
  • 14,500 family-size jerry cans (10 ltr.) and 20 community water tanks (500 ltr.)
One Indonesian staff member from UNICEF accompanied the cargo.

UNICEF has been working in Indonesia since 1950 and has maintained programs in both West and East Timor for the past 18 years. The agency has operational bases in Kupang and Atambua (West Timor), and is re-establishing its offices in Dili (East Timor).

Please email media@unicef.org with comments or requests for more information, quoting CF/DOC/PR/1999/40


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