Kupang – A terror campaign by pro-Indonesian militia that started in East Timor has moved across the border to West Timor, where more than 100,000 refugees have fled, fearful sources said.
People, who have visited the border town of Atambua, described it as a lawless place of gunfire, murder and kidnapping.
There are fears that army-backed militiamen in Atambua and Kupang are hunting down pro-independence refugees, say several sources who asked for anonymity.
Two people were shot dead "by armed people that were not the police" near a market in Atambua last Thursday, a traveller returning from the area who heard the gunshots told AFP.
He could not confirm whether the victims were supporters of an independent East Timor. The territory voted overwhelmingly for independence in a UN-sponsored vote held August 30.
"People are killed during the day time," said another traveller who recently returned to Kupang after several days in Atambua.
One person who also travelled to the region said he had spoken with a witness, who, late last week, saw a person kidnapped on the street in Atambua.
"From his point of view it was militias" who abducted the person, said the source, who recognised both Aitarak (Thorn) and Besi Merah Putih (Red and White Iron) militia, groups who were prominent in the East Timor violence, in the town. "Everybody has a gun – the army, the police, the militia," he said.
Another source in direct contact with people in Atambua over the weekend said most shops were closed. "The tension is escalating," he said. Armed men, believed to be militia, are demanding free goods from merchants, he said.
"The travel is difficult and dangerous," the source said. "The militia are hijacking trucks at gunpoint ... because they want to evacuate their relatives from there." He said Indonesian security forces are "not taking away the weapons" from militiamen.
One traveller said he saw on the streets of Atambua about 20 Land Rovers stolen from the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET). "Some were driven by IDPs [internally displaced people or refugees], some were driven by armed people," he said.
Most refugees who have crossed the land border, fleeing the post-election violence in East Timor, are staying in the Atambua area where they were sheltering in groups of 800 to 1,000 people, one source said. "You see displaced people behind houses," he said. "Each camp has a coordinator – either military or militia."
Two travellers said young men are rarely seen in the camps. "What is happening to the young men? Are they recruited by force?" one asked.
Other sources said many of the refugees in Atambua were pro-Indonesian and probably families of militiamen who have been ordered to fight across the border.
A young East Timorese who fled to Indonesian West Timor called the refugee centers "concentration camps." He said he had been able to stay elsewhere. "We don't want to register at the camps, because if we register, we go on a black list and the militias will force us to follow them," he said.
Knowledgeable sources believe the largest single refugee camp in West Timor is Kupang's Noelbaki facility where between 12,000 and 20,000 refugees are staying.
One source with contacts inside the camp said two people were stabbed to death at Noelbati last week. The source said militias had been "sweeping" the camps, looking for supporters of East Timorese independence.
"We definitely know the militias are going around Kupang," the source said. Even outside the camps, militias have knocked at peoples' doors asking if East Timorese live there, he said. "They are going around asking questions. People are in danger."