However, more than 100,000 East Timorese remain unable to return home, nearly five months after the referendum and despite repeated pledges by the Indonesian government to remedy the situation. Thousands taken to other areas of Indonesia are unaccounted for. Human rights groups and others have reported many instances of murder, rape, and sexual enslavement of women. Militia groups have attacked U.N.-organized convoys of refugees returning to East Timor and chased away U.N. personnel who are in the camps to educate the people there about conditions in East Timor. Aid workers have been threatened.
Refugees lack adequate shelter, sanitation, and water.
Nearly 500 East Timorese, including 310 children, have died from preventable illnesses due to inadequate sanitation and medical care in the refugee camps, according to West Timor officials. The World Health Organization says that cases of cholera, malaria, and tuberculosis outbreaks are likely to increase, especially now that the rainy season has begun. InterFET, the International Force for East Timor, is killing people and raping women in East Timor. Men, women and children are separated from each other upon returning to East Timor. East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao has been retaliating against East Timorese returning from West Timor.