On September 11, Australia's Minister for Defence, John Moore, estimated that 180,000 refugees had already arrived in West Timor. Between Monday and Wednesday, trucks filled with people arrived hourly, and on Wednesday, Hercules planes carrying Indonesian soldiers accompanied by women and children believed to be their families were arriving every fifteen minutes. Yesterday, Sunday September 12, another group of refugees arrived at Kupang airport from Lospalos, in the east of East Timor.
Sources confirm that refugees are without adequate food, and are extremely thin and demoralised.
3 Refugees Killed in West Timor Reliable sources have confirmed that in Atambua on Monday September 6, an East Timorese refugee was tied up and then repeatedly stabbed until he died, in the front of a large number of refugees. The perpetrators were Indonesian military and militia. In Kupang, a further two refugee men were first shot dead in front of their families and friends and then taken to an unknown place. Reliable sources confirm that there is a significant presence of Indonesian military, police and militia, and that it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between these three forces. Indonesian military, police and militia are patrolling both Kupang and Atambua, and are carrying out operations, particularly at night, where they search for East Timorese men, including independence supporters.