NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

    DILI, East Timor (CWNews.com) - Thousands of East Timorese came out of hiding the mountainous countryside on Tuesday to seek food being handed out by international peacekeepers.

    Hundreds of thousands of people took to hiding in the forests last month after anti-independence militias, aided by Indonesian military and police, began a rampage following a vote for independence in the territory. Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation in the world, invaded mainly Catholic East Timor in 1975 and annexed it the following year in a move not recognized by the United Nations. In August, the region held a Jakarta-proposed referendum to allow Timorese to choose either autonomy within Indonesia or full independence.

    The thousands of refugees lined up outside the torched home of Bishop Carlos Belo of Dili to receive the largest food aid since the peacekeepers arrived 15 days ago. Organizers distributed 13,000 110-pound bags of rice to families -- enough to feed 60,000 people for a month.

    The United Nations also planned to start bringing back hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighboring West Timor where they had been forced to flee at the height of the violence. Australian Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove, the head of the international peacekeeping force also announced he had written to Indonesian commanders to demand that four of their officers be returned to Dili as part of the investigation into the slaying of a Dutch journalist.

Articles provided through Catholic World News and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales and International Dossiers, Daily Dispatches and Features at ZENIT International News Agency. CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.