[Kabar-indonesia] 150,000 Timorese Displaced [+Courier-Mail; Alkatiri Interview; New Violence]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

8 reports: 

- 150,000 Displaced by Timor Violence

- AAP: Gusmao's wife blames Alkatiri 
  for unrest

- Courier-Mail/Perspectives: Up in Smoke
  [For the people of East Timor, everything 
  is broken]

- The Age update in Dili: Fresh violence 
  rocks Timor

- The Australian: Sacked PM blamed 
  for renewed Dili violence

- Interview with Mari Alkatiri

- The Age in Dili: Mob rule leaves troops 
  struggling in its wake

- The Age: Machetes, spears all in a 
  day's work

The Australian
Thursday, June 29, 2006

150,000 Displaced by Timor Violence

David Nason, New York correspondent 

THE number of East Timorese people registered as internally displaced has 
risen past 150,000 - about 15 per cent of the country's population - according to 
figures released at UN headquarters in New York.

The UN said there were now 10,000 more displaced people than at the beginning 
of last week, a clear sign that fear and uncertainty continues to reign on 
the troubled island. 

The figures, collected by the UN Office in East Timor (UNOTIL), show that 
more than 79,000 people are displaced in districts outside Dili while more than 
72,000 are living in makeshift tent camps in the capital. 

The data was released as Ian Martin, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's 
special envoy to East Timor, continued to meet senior officials of the ruling 
Fretilin party of former prime minister Mari Alkatiri, who resigned this week after 
weeks of speculation about his future. 

Mr Martin has been asked to make recommendations to the Security Council by 
August 7 about the structure of a new UN mandate for East Timor. 

This will include details on the size, composition and powers of a proposed 
UN police presence, as well as the duties it should undertake and how long it 
should be deployed. 

Earlier this month, Mr Annan said it was "obvious" the UN would have to 
engage East Timor in a much larger way than the existing UNOTIL presence. 

East Timor's parliament has requested a UN force of 870 police deployed in 
five units for a minimum of 12 months and with four key areas of responsibility. 

These are the maintenance of law and order in Dili and other key regions 
using specialised and rapid reaction police units; community and general policing 
in Dili; advice on the rebuilding of East Timor's police including the vetting 
of officers, policy planning and drafting of legislation; and investigation 
of serious incidents, including forensic support. 

East Timor's police force effectively disintegrated in late April at the 
height of the violence that forced the intervention of the Australian-led 
international force now trying to maintain order and protect civilians. 

The crisis, which has cost 37 lives, was sparked by jealousies within East 
Timor's police and armed forces and fuelled by regional tensions and the failure 
of the Alkatiri government to control the situation.

---------------------------------------

AAP
June 29, 2006

Gusmao's wife blames Alkatiri for unrest

The Australian-born wife of East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has accused 
former prime minister Mari Alkatiri of exacerbating tensions in Dili by 
making an inflammatory speech.

Kirsty Sword Gusmao says people are living in fear of violent attacks by Mr 
Alkatiri's supporters and many have sought refuge in makeshift camps around 
Dili.

Gangs made up of people from the country's west descended on the capital 
after the former prime minister made a provocative televised address blaming his 
political opponents for the country's woes.

Mr Alkatiri has urged his supporters to return to Dili later this week for 
his court appearance on allegations surrounding the distribution of arms and 
alleged plans to set up a secret hit squad.

Mrs Gusmao said the former prime minister had acted irresponsibly by fanning 
the flames of racial tension during Tuesday night's speech.

"He spoke to crowds of Fretilin supporters and spoke in a rather inflammatory 
way," she told ABC Radio.

"I think that really had a very, very unnerving effect ... and I think it's 
resulted in this even greater sense of insecurity now that we're seeing and 
experiencing today on the streets of Dili."

Mrs Gusmao said she was worried by reports of violence at refugee camps in 
Dili and feared more unrest if Mr Alkatiri's supporters heeded his plea for them 
to converge on the capital later this week.

"That violence is clearly of great concern because you have such huge 
concentrations of people (in camps) ... made up principally of women and children," 
she said.

"Even just last night ... in this area there was quite a bit of looting and 
the threat of further political instability and politically motivated violence."

----------------------------------------

Courier-Mail (Queensland)
June 28, 2006

Perspectives

Up in Smoke

by Cindy Wockner  

WITHOUT a hint of irony or sarcasm – and with a deadpan face – Romana 
Oliveira Alves told it the way she saw it.

"When the Indonesians were here at least it was much better than now. Now 
everything is broken." 

Her teeth stained bright red from chewing betel nut, her weathered arms stick 
thin and the stench of raw sewage pervading the refugee camp where she was 
sheltering, Romana was doing no more than expressing the despair that has 
descended on the East Timorese, culminating in the forced resignation this week of 
the prime minister and other Government figures.

Not only that, Romana admitted that these days, life for her was better in a 
refugee camp than being at her home.

"I don't have to work here like I do at home to put food on the table," she 
said, looking every one of her 88 years.

Her eyes have that aura of sad resignation that comes with fighting for too 
long and struggling to survive.

For people such as Romana, the long-dreamed-of nationhood and the promise of 
a bright new future in an independent East Timor have been fleeting to the 
point of non-existence.

To suggest life was somehow better under the 24 years of documented brutal 
Indonesian rule is a big call indeed for someone who lived through that dark 
period.

But it is a reflection of where East Timor stands today and tells just a 
little of what its ordinary citizens are thinking – everything is broken.

The economy is in ruins, not aided by the decision to use the US dollar as 
the currency, and the Government has failed to deliver to its people, many of 
whom live in poverty, a better way of life or to rein in massive unemployment.

Now, like the economy, much of the capital Dili is also in ruins – houses and 
government buildings have been torched.

They stand desolately beside the remnants of buildings trashed in the wave of 
disgraceful violence which followed the jubilant 1999 referendum.

The independence vote six years ago promised so much but, for people such as 
Romana, has delivered so little.

The past two months of life in East Timor have left so many pondering whether 
the past six years have been a waste.

And while Mari Alkatiri's decision to resign the prime ministership – made 
under unrelenting pressure and accusations (which he vehemently denies) that he 
armed a private hit squad to eliminate his political rivals – may well be a 
circuit-breaker to prevent predicted fresh waves of violence and killings, it 
would be naive to regard this as the panacea to East Timor's woes.

The nation of less than 1 million is now without effective government, ruled 
by the 2700 foreign troops who patrol the streets to maintain law and order.

It is a copybook example of just how fleeting and fragile newfound democracy 
and independence can be.

The current woes stem from historical ethnic rivalries between the east and 
the west and a widely held public disdain for Alkatiri, who spent much of the 
difficult years of Indonesian rule exiled in Mozambique in Southern Africa and 
who suffered from claims that he had no real idea of the suffering endured by 
his people.

"Alkatiri is a communist," the protesters chanted in the weeks leading up to 
his resignation. They hated him, they said, and they hated his arrogance.

They said that he was more like a devil.

By contrast, President Xanana Gusmao, who led the fight for independence from 
Indonesia, was a folk hero.

Some observers suggest blame should also be laid at the feet of the United 
Nations for packing up and leaving so quickly in 2002 after only three years of 
UN rule.

It is now a universal criticism in Timor, Indonesia and Australia that the UN 
left too quickly, not allowing the East Timorese time to progress.

There was unfinished business and that business will be unfinished for a long 
time to come.

Alkatiri got it right when, in his resignation announcement on Monday, he 
said: "The people of Timor Leste deserve to live in peace and tranquillity."

They deserve that and a lot more.

Cindy Wockner is The Courier-Mail's Jakarta-based correspondent

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The Age (Melbourne)
Thursday, June 29, 2006

Fresh violence rocks Timor

by Lindsay Murdoch, Dili

PRESIDENT Xanana Gusmao has given an ultimatum to East Timor's ruling 
political party, Fretilin, to elect new leaders after a fresh wave of violence swept 
the capital Dili.

In the latest explosion of unrest, opponents of deposed prime minister Mari 
Alkatiri burnt houses and buildings and launched attacks on a refugee camp and 
a television station.

Yesterday's violence was blamed on a defiant speech from Mr Alkatiri, in 
which he called for a show of strength from his supporters following his forced 
resignation on Monday.

Last night there were fears of a further escalation in the unrest, with 
Fretilin officials saying thousands of Alkatiri supporters who have been massing in 
a town near Dili would enter the city this morning.

Protest organiser Filomeno Aleixo, whose house in Dili was burnt down early 
yesterday, said up to 18,000 demonstrators would arrive in the capital over the 
next few days.

"We have been attacked," Mr Aleixo said. "Our homes have been burnt. Our 
families have been terrorised. Now it's our turn to show our strength."

Sixteen people were arrested yesterday for arson, looting and other offences, 
said Major James Baker, spokesman for the Australian-led multinational forces 
in Dili. "This was a spike in activity and we hope it's just a spike but we 
have plans to deal with any increased activity," he said.

Late yesterday hundreds of demonstrators who have been celebrating Mr 
Alkatiri's removal from office left the city in trucks for their homes in western 
parts of the country. Australian peacekeepers had negotiated their departure 
before the arrival of Fretilin-organised protesters, who are from eastern areas.

As the fresh violence erupted, President Gusmao moved behind the scenes to 
reject Fretilin's legitimacy with an ultimatum for the party to call a special 
congress within 30 days to elect new leaders.

Mr Gusmao plans to form a caretaker government to take immediate control of 
the country, which has endured weeks of turmoil while rival leaders have been 
locked in a bitter political crisis.

The ultimatum to Fretilin, which has a constitutional right to choose the 
prime minister, took the party by surprise.

The party sent a letter to Mr Gusmao yesterday seeking an urgent meeting to 
discuss formation of the interim government, which it insists it must head.

Key Fretilin officials are angry that Mr Gusmao appears to want to negotiate 
the formation of the government with individual members and not as a party.

Mr Gusmao has not made public his plan to force Fretilin to hold a repeat of 
its congress in May. But he is apparently justifying the move by insisting 
that the election of Mr Alkatiri and other leaders was illegal because the party 
violated the principle of a secret ballot. Fretilin strongly rejects the claim.

An opposition MP, Joao Gonclaves, said Mr Alkatiri's speech to his supporters 
as they massed outside Dili late on Tuesday was irresponsible.

"It was the direct cause of the fresh outbreak of violence," Mr Gonclaves 
said. "The (former) prime minister should have gone there and calmed the Fretilin 
supporters," he said. "Instead he went there and provoked them.

"The situation has become extremely dangerous. There is now the potential for 
a larger conflict where people from the east and west are fighting each 
other," he said.

Mr Akatiri had described his removal from office the day before as 
undemocratic and an abuse of the country's constitution and called on Fretilin's 
supporters to "show we are still the party of strength".

One target of the mobs in Dili yesterday was the local television station, 
which had aired Mr Alkatiri's speech. A security guard at the station was bashed.

Earlier, the homes of key members of Fretilin were attacked. Mr Aleixo told 
The Age that the homes had been specifically targeted. "Who paid the gangsters 
to do it? Who is behind them? I can tell you that we know who it is and it is 
part of an orchestrated plot to persecute Fretilin officials," he said.

Mr Aleixo and his family left their house two days ago, fearing they might be 
targeted.

Mr Aleixo said he was personally opposed to the Fretilin protesters coming 
into Dili even though he helped organise their arrival.

"It's my opinion but we can't afford to have thousands of angry people 
destroying, shops, attacking people and burning houses," he said. "I fear the 
situation will become an even bigger mess."

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The Australian
Thursday, June 29, 2006

Sacked PM blamed for renewed Dili violence

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Dili 

DILI'S relative calm was shattered yesterday by a renewed outbreak of street 
battles and house torchings as angry youths reacted to a defiant challenge by 
Mari Alkatiri against the "unconstitutional" forces that forced him to resign 
as prime minister.

It is feared the violence will increase with the arrival in Dili, as soon as 
today, of tens of thousands of Alkatiri supporters from the country's east. 

Dr Alkatiri stepped down from power on Monday but is accused of encouraging 
his supporters to protest. 

The Australian-born wife of East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao said Dr 
Alkatiri had exacerbated tensions in Dili by speaking "in an inflammatory way". 

Kirsty Sword Gusmao said people were living in fear of violent attacks by Dr 
Alkatiri's supporters, and accused the former prime minister of acting 
irresponsibly by fanning the flames of racial tension during his speech. 

"He spoke to crowds of Fretilin supporters and spoke in a rather inflammatory 
way," she told ABC radio. 

"I think that really had a very, very unnerving effect ... and I think it's 
resulted in this even greater sense of insecurity now that we're seeing and 
experiencing today on the streets of Dili." 

As attempts to defuse tensions between pro- and anti-Alkatiri groups 
foundered, gangs of street thugs yesterday morning attacked a refugee camp in the 
city's centre, directly in front of the Australian military's main operations 
base. 

They said the camp mostly contained East Timorese from the Lorosae, or 
eastern, ethnic group, which has been mobilised in recent days to support the 
embattled Dr Alkatiri. 

However, camp residents and others insist there is a mix of people crammed 
into the small central city park, brought together largely by fear and the 
destruction of their homes in previous violence. 
After several largely arson-free weeks, a new round of guerrilla attacks 
began on Tuesday night on buildings owned by people perceived to be connected with 
Dr Alkatiri, his Fretilin party or with the Lorosae ethnic group. 

Australian soldiers, Portuguese republican guards and East Timor's bombeiros 
firefighting squad struggled in vain to put out the fires, which appeared to 
be lit by small teams of youths able to disappear as soon as they had torched 
their targets. The arson attacks continued throughout the day yesterday. 

Fretilin president Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres travelled to the eastern town 
of Metinaru in the afternoon to speak to tens of thousands of Alkatiri 
supporters who are expected to travel to Dili as soon as today. 

Fretilin spokesman Jose Reis said a meeting with Australian and Portuguese 
officials had decided the pro-Alkatiri forces could travel safely to Dili to 
show their support. Dr Alkatiri is expected in court today to answer claims he 
helped arm a secret hit squad charged with eliminating his political opponents. 

"It's the responsibility of the international military to provide security 
for the supporters," Mr Reis said. 

Western districts-based anti-Alkatiri groups, who have been camped out in the 
city for weeks, went home yesterday afternoon after Mr Gusmao gave them a 
guarantee he would "take immediate steps towards forming a new government, under 
the current parliamentary scope" and said that if this proved unworkable, he 
would call early elections. 

However, some westerners aboard the hundreds of trucks that paraded through 
Dili on their way back to the western districts promised they would return 
soon, possibly even before the easterners arrive. 

One of their organisers said the latest violence could be blamed on Mr 
Gusmao, who had "waited too long before making a decision". "The parliament had 
already been taken by the people and given to him, so why didn't he act before 
now?" Zhino Trindade said. 

The western districts protesters have been demanding the dissolution of 
parliament. 

Another leader, Augusto Junior Trindade, said after a meeting with Mr Gusmao 
that the thousands of protesters had left town on the condition no current 
supporters of Dr Alkatiri feature in any new government. 

This requirement is unlikely to be met, since Fretilin, the party of which Dr 
Alkatiri was reinstalled secretary-general only last month, controls 
parliament by a large majority.

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NewMatilda.com
June 28, 2006

East Timor: Alkatiri Speaks

John Martinkus

East Timor's Prime Minister Marí Alkatiri finally 
stood down on Monday after repeated calls for 
his resignation. According to the man himself, 
the Australian media played a large part in the 
campaign to get rid of him.

'It started in The Australian,' he said, 'and 
suddenly it spread to more or less all. Some 
[report like this] because they are not informed 
or aware of the situation - but others because 
they are trying to demonise me.'

Right up until his resignation Alkatiri insisted 
that the crisis gripping East Timor was a 
foreign-backed coup, and that a series of recent 
allegations against him were politically motivated.

In a wide-ranging interview last week, he gave 
his own version of what caused the chaos in Dili 
in late May and the breakdown of law and order 
that led to 130,000 internal refugees and the 
deployment of 2500 troops from Australia, New 
Zealand and Malaysia to quell the violence.

Alkatiri claims that opposition groups within 
East Timor with foreign backing had repeatedly 
tried to convince prominent commanders in the 
East Timorese armed forces to overthrow his 
Government. When this failed, he said, they 
helped provoke the army mutiny which had taken 
the country to the brink of civil war. 'They were 
always trying to get the command of Falintil-FDTL 
(East Timor Defence Forces).'

'They tried to convince the command to order and 
participate in a coup. They failed.' It was then, 
he said, that his opponents embarked on a 
program to weaken the influence of the military.'
When they failed to bring the command to join 
their forces in a coup they tried to break F-FDTL 
by bringing out of the barracks almost 600, which 
they called the petitioners.'

It was the sacking of 600 soldiers from the tiny 
country's western region that precipitated the 
latest crisis. The soldiers were protesting what 
they perceived as discrimination in the armed 
forces, which is dominated by commanders 
from the country's east where the guerrilla 
forces held out during the 24-year Indonesian 
occupation.

Senior sources within the command of F-FDTL 
confirmed that Alkatiri's claims were genuine. 
They say three separate approaches had been 
made to the leadership to lead a coup against 
Alkatiri in the past 18 months.

I was able to confirm that in April 2005, 
following weeks of mass demonstrations against 
Alkatiri's Government ,the commander of the 
F-FDTL, Brigadier Taur Matan Ruak ,had been 
approached to lead a coup by senior figures 
within East Timor's Catholic church. He rejected 
the offer. He was approached again early this 
year and asked to lead a coup in a meeting with 
two prominent East Timorese leaders and two 
foreign nationals. Again he refused, reportedly 
telling them it was against the Constitution and 
would set an unacceptable precedent.

One of his leading deputies, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Falur Rate Laek, a veteran of the war against 
Indonesia, was also approached by the same two 
local leaders and foreign nationals. He also refused.

Due to the sensitivity of the information, the 
nationalities of the foreigners was not revealed.

Alkatiri says his political opponents exploited 
ethnic divisions within the police force to create 
unrest:

Then they try to influence the PNTL [East Timor 
National Police Force]. How did they do it? 
Through this kind of propaganda: Loromunu–Loro 
Sae [West vs East]. They succeeded in dividing 
the people within the PNTL. This is the whole 
strategy. Then they put groups of PNTL against 
groups of F-FDTL in confrontation. And they 
succeeded again.

'This is why I requested assistance from 
outside,' he said, in reference to the arrival of 
foreign troops in late May.

Alkatiri is adamant the violence was orchestrated 
as part of a program to topple his Government. 
'It has to be institutions inside, assisted by 
others outside,' he said. I pressed him on this 
point. Who exactly was he talking about? 'I think 
there are outside groups … can be from Australia 
maybe from Indonesia but not the Governments … 
But still I do believe there are outside groups. 
We need some time to investigate.'

Recent allegations against the Alkatiri 
Government have proved difficult to verify. Mass 
graves and so-called massacres apparently 
perpetrated by the Armed Forces at the Prime 
Minister's request have failed to materialise and 
have proved to be nothing more than rumours.

The most damning allegations against Alkatiri, 
aired on Four Corners on 19 June, were that he 
had ordered his Minister for the Interior, 
Rogério Lobato, to arm a secret civilian security 
team under the leadership of Vincente da 
Conceição — also known as Commander 'Rai Los'. 
Lobato has since resigned and is now under house 
arrest.

Rai Los claimed Alkatiri ordered him to set up a 
hit squad to wipe out opponents. In response, 
Alkatiri said that he knew three of the men 
involved in the Rai Los group as they had 
attended the Fretilin conference in May. He also 
said he had had a brief meeting with them in 
which he told them only to enforce security , but 
not to kill opponents as they claimed.

Alkatiri also pointed out that the Rai Los group 
had fought against the F-FDTL and taken part in 
the attack on the military base at Tacitolu on 24 May.

'This is contradictory,' Alkatiri said. 'What 
kind of secret Fretilin group is this that they 
are also fighting against the F-FDTL?'

The F-FDTL confirmed that Rai Los's men had 
participated in the attack on their base in 
Tacitolu which , according to the soldiers, had 
been a surprise attack from positions prepared in 
the hills above their base by Rai Los and 
soldiers under 'Major' Alfredo Reinado. The 
soldiers also added that Rai Los was a former 
Falintil guerrilla fighter in the war against 
Indonesia who had been sacked by the armed 
forces in 2004 over embezzling pay-cheques.

What is clear is that the violence that led to 
the resignation of the Prime Minister was 
initiated by soldiers who had left the military 
with their weapons under the command of 
self-appointed 'Major ' Alfredo Reinado, a 
lieutenant who left the military command after 
becoming involved with the demonstrating 
soldiers. They were the ones who attacked the 
F-FDTL on the 23 and 24 of May, which sparked 
the violence.

Perhaps those mysterious two foreign nationals 
and the local leaders who approached the military 
had finally found their man in the East Timorese 
defence force to carry out their coup?

About the author

John Martinkus covered the conflict in East Timor 
from 1995 until 2000. He was resident 
correspondent in Dili for Associated Press and 
Australian Associated Press, from 1998 until 2000.

He is author of A Dirty Little War (Random House, 
2001), about the country's violent passage to 
independence. He was in East Timor last week.

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The Age (Melbourne)
Thursday, June 29, 2006

Mob rule leaves troops struggling in its wake

by Lindsay Murdoch

THEIR bodies trembled with fear. They sobbed. They stared wide-eyed, heads 
bowed. They were mostly women and children, huddled together yesterday at the 
gate of Dili's main wharf.

They had been chased there by anti-Alkatiri rioters standing on the road 20 
metres in front of them, screaming threats. "We're going to kill you all," one 
of the mob leaders yelled. "You are all dead."

All that mattered to the rioters, who were frothing at the mouth and 
screaming incoherently, was that they believed the petrified women and children were 
from East Timor's eastern regions.

That's how bizarre East Timor's conflict has become: some Timorese are 
violently attacking people they don't know simply because of where they happened to 
be born.

A handful of Australian troops stood between the attackers and the women and 
children, hamstrung by their rules of engagement and weighed down by combat 
gear and automatic weapons they are unlikely to use even if their tormentors are 
creating terror among already deeply traumatised people.

Under the rules, the soldiers must remain "neutral".

"Our soldiers are taught to have a measured response to defuse any situation 
which might arise," said Major James Baker, spokesman for Australian's 
peacekeeping force in Dili.

"Our job is to make sure the feuding parties are separated."

The rioters, most of them teenagers, seemed oblivious to the Australians.

As they retreated from the gate, they pulled out rocks they had hidden in 
their pockets and threw them at the entrance to a makeshift refugee camp across 
the road from the port gate.

More than 1000 Timorese came to live in the camp weeks ago when violence 
first erupted in Dili because the one-time public park was near the port where the 
Australians have set up their headquarters.

This is where the woman and children at the gate ran from.

Major Baker said the Australian officer in charge at the scene yesterday made 
the decision not to open the gate to let the women and children enter the 
wharf area, where they would have at least felt safe.

Soldiers were standing between the rioters and the huddled group, providing 
adequate protection, he said.

For hours yesterday anti-Alkatiri protesters, angered by a speech the deposed 
prime minister had made to thousands of his Fretilin supporters on Dili's 
outskirts the day before, rioted through the capital, seemingly under the noses 
of Australian, Portuguese, Malaysian and New Zealand troops.

Only 35 minutes after walking away from the port, the same group of about 60 
rioters were setting fire to buildings and looting shops in another part of 
the town, behind the waterfront Hotel Dili.

Inexplicably, none of the troops had bothered to follow them there.

They had been rioting for at least 15 minutes before vehicles with six 
Australian soldiers aboard screamed to a halt in front of a blazing shop.

The soldiers jumped out and chased the culprits, one grabbing the slowest 
rioter by the neck before bundling him into one of the vehicles.

The rest of the rioters escaped, free to terrorise elsewhere.

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The Age (Melbourne)
Thursday, June 29, 2006

Machetes, spears all in a day's work

by Carol Nader

THE day that Glenn Guest arrived in East Timor, some 100 men with machetes 
and spears charged at the hospital in Dili and set fire to some of the houses 
nearby.

It was a stark sign of what would lie ahead during his latest stint in the 
troubled region. The Australian surgeon, based at Geelong Hospital, has made a 
number of trips to East Timor over the past four years. He has spent 20 months 
there in that period. He just got back to Australia on Monday night, after 
spending four weeks there.

Mr Guest did not go to East Timor specifically to help out because of the 
political unrest. He would have gone anyway, not only to carry out life-saving 
surgery but to also train local surgeons so they can be more self-sufficient. He 
was with Dr David Hamilton, a semi-retired doctor from New Zealand.

He says Australians in East Timor have played a crucial role in helping 
people caught in the middle of the violence.

"During the recent unrest, many patients suffered gunshot injuries to the 
abdomen, to the chest and to the limbs, and the operations performed would often 
save their lives, but importantly would often save their limbs."

Local nurses were bringing their families to stay in the hospital because 
their homes had been destroyed or it wasn't safe to stay there any more. There 
were about 800 refugees staying at the hospital.

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons sends many surgeons to developing 
nations, mainly funded by through AusAID, plus the Rotary and Lions clubs.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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