7 December -- Four more children have died in the Tua Pukan camp in West Timor, bringing to 174 the total number of illness-related deaths since September, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.
The agency said there were many other makeshift facilities in the province and it feared that with the onset of the rainy season the conditions would be similar to those at Tua Pukan. UNHCR said that it has been unable to access the camps because of security concerns. Meanwhile, the number of refugees returning to East Timor remains low.
On the security situation, UNHCR said local Indonesian military authorities have agreed to separate militia members and their families from refugees in West Timor by offering a separate facility to shelter those people.
In other developments, the Indonesian National Commission of Inquiry into human rights violations in East Timor arrived in Dili today for a week-long visit, during which they will collect direct testimony from witnesses, a UN spokesman in New York said.
The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) also began deploying newly appointed District Administrators. Eventually, each of East Timor's 13 districts will be headed by transitional administrators appointed by the head of UNTAET, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
