By Jon Land
Recent reports from East Timor indicate that unless long-awaited monsoon rains arrive soon to break the drought, there may be a severe famine within the next few months.
Speaking in Darwin on January 24, East Timorese resistance spokesperson Jose Ramos Horta stated: "If there is no urgent humanitarian assistance right now, in a few months from now it will be too late for many thousands of people".
Food and water are in short supply for more than 7000 people on Atauro island, 20 kilometres from Dili. "There are people half dead right now without the strength to walk to the nearest village to fetch water or food", said Horta.
Staple food crops such as corn, pineapples and bananas have all failed, while the cost of rice has risen by 33% as a result of the economic crisis in Indonesia.
A report from the AusAID office in East Timor to the Australian government revealed that communities along the north coast — stretching from Liquicia in the west to Los Palos in the east — are subsisting on seeds designated for next year's crop. AusAID and the Red Cross are the only aid organisations the Indonesian government will permit into East Timor.
At a press conference in Lisbon on January 28, Horta called for international pressure to be placed on Indonesia to allow more aid organisations into East Timor in order to avert a catastrophe.
A briefing paper, prepared by the East Timor International Support Centre in Darwin, highlights the fact that the large number of Indonesian troops occupying the territory (30,000 by recent estimates) have placed a big drain on its food and water supplies. Resettlement and transmigration programs, along with deforestation carried out by the Indonesian government, have also exacerbated the difficult situation.