U.N. Halts Refugee Aid in West Timor

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said that it was suspending operations in West Timor after three of its workers were severely injured in an attack by pro-Indonesian militias. The anti-independence militia gangs have also set up roadblocks in the Indonesian province to stop refugees from returning home to East Timor, said U.N. refugee agency spokesman Jake Morland, adding that Indonesia’s military was doing nothing to stop the rising tensions in the region. Soren Jessen-Petersen, assistant high commissioner for refugees, said in Geneva that the attack with sticks and machetes came as the workers were distributing plastic sheeting Tuesday to East Timorese refugees at a camp 80 miles from the provincial capital, Kupang.