Urge him to suspend financial assistance to Indonesia unless it complies immediately with UN demands to end the violence in East Timor. Again, ask that the U.S. demand the suspension of assistance to Indonesia. Please spread this alert widely. An alert from the East Timor Action Network follows below. Sweeps East Timor Call Today to Demand an End to the Killing.
Many children are among the dead.
The paramilitaries and TNI are systematically targeting buildings which house refugees. With the evacuation of UN staff and media from outlying towns, foreign observers are unable to confirm the extent of violence outside Dili, but it is believed to be severe. Hundreds of houses have been burned and dozens killed in Maliana alone. Reports have come in of mutilated bodies littering the road to West Timor. Thousands more East Timorese are now refugees, many of them forced onto trucks headed for unknown destinations.