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Aid agency seeks E Timor death toll inquiry. 08/06/2006. ABC News Online

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1658121.htm]

Last Update: Thursday, June 8, 2006. 9:55am (AEST)
Caritas says anecdotal evidence is mounting to suggest a far higher death toll in East Timor.

Caritas says anecdotal evidence is mounting to suggest a far higher death toll in East Timor. (Reuters)

Aid agency seeks E Timor death toll inquiry

By Anne Barker in Dili

Catholic Church agency Caritas wants an international investigation to determine how many people have died in East Timor since the first riots in April, and who is to blame.

There are fears many more people have died in the recent violence than official accounts show.

Officially more than 20 people have died since the April riots that sparked East Timor's cycle of violence.

Most were police or soldiers caught up in the bitter conflict.

Others have been victim to the street gangs that continue to terrorise Dili's population.

Caritas says anecdotal evidence is mounting to suggest a far higher death toll.

The agency's chief executive Jack de Groot says only an international investigation will find those behind the violence.

"I think what people really are grappling with is, the stories are out there, they can't get an answer," he said.

"Their fears about a lack of security in this town and in this country are based on a lack of confidence that justice will be served."

The United Nations has announced inquiries into the role of East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri in the deaths of more than a dozen people.

Refugees fearful

Caritas also says it could be another month before the tens of thousands of people living as refugees in Dili begin to leave their temporary camps.

Aid workers fear an outbreak of disease if people do not return to their homes soon.

About 70,000 people are living in confined conditions in the many camps around Dili, still fearful of the street gangs who have destroyed much of the city.

Caritas estimates four to 500 houses alone have been burnt down in the past 10 days by gang members embroiled in fighting.

The agency says conditions in the camps will only worsen, with fears already of malaria and diseases caused by poor sanitation.

Two weeks after Australian troops arrived in East Timor, they are yet to restore civil order.



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