UNICEF launches major vaccination campaign for children in East Timor
1 March -- UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, today launched a major immunization campaign in East Timor to protect some 20,000 infants from serious diseases such as tuberculosis and polio.
In preparation for the campaign, UNICEF and its partners had to first re-establish a "cold chain" of refrigerators and freezers in East Timor's 13 districts to store the vaccines and preserve their effectiveness, since most health clinics were destroyed in last year's violence.
Another UNICEF-sponsored campaign in East Timor has already immunized 50,000 children against measles since October 1999, including most of the children returning from West Timor. The current effort will protect children against measles, tuberculosis, polio, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, also known as whooping cough.
In other news, the Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced People visited the territory today and noted that East Timor's internally displaced - who had formerly taken refuge in the hills or in West Timor - were returning to "total deprivation" as a result of the destruction and looting of their homes.
During a press briefing in Dili, Francis Deng said that law and order, as well as an effective justice system, were badly needed in certain areas in order for people to feel safe enough to return. He added that in many areas, there could be no guarantees for the returnees' security.
"I presume that it's common sense that if one was actively involved in the crimes that took place here, they will think twice before coming," Mr. Deng said. He added that many people still in the West Timorese camps were being intimidated by militias not to return home.
