business is good.
Subject: REPORT ON FAMINE IN EAST TIMOR
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 06:18:30 +0000
From: "ETISC"
REPORT ON FAMINE IN EAST TIMOR 12/06/09
This outline is based on a report given to us by a group of people who visited East Timor in March 1998. March is close to the end of the normal 'wet' season and near the onset of the 'dry' - so conditions as far as crops and water supply have probably worsened overall since the time of these observations. Some specific details have been removed to protect anonymity where it is felt necessary.
"During our trip to East Timor, we traveled through regions where villagers were experiencing extreme scarcity of food, bordering on starvation. We were also aware of a general food shortage almost everywhere we went due to drought, crop failure and the economic downturn. The following notes give some details.
"From Dili to Suai. The first stage of the journey took us through Kaisa'e, Liquiça and Maubara. All people - men, women and children, looked extremely thin and undernourished. Occasionally, along the roadway, we came upon various small stalls where some person was trying to sell a few bananas, cucumbers or chokos.
"At Karimbala we saw men up the side of the mountain digging rock out with crowbars. We stopped to speak with them - they were extremely thin and exhausted by their hard work. We continued through Loes where we met a fisherman who had been out in his boat to catch fish for his family. He told us that they had to rely on fish as food because there was no corn or rice. He had no money to buy other food. We shared what food we had with him.
"We travelled on to the village of Beakau and then to Megir. It was here that we were shocked by the plight of the people. We saw the corn growing near the homes and villages but there were no cobs on it. On the ground were rows of something which we found out was sago. The people told us they have been surviving on 'akar' - sago. They told us how their corn crops had failed and that there had not been enough rain to plant rice. They explained the process involved with the sago. They cut it and then it takes 4 days to dry out. Then they pound it and mix it into a cake-like form with water. The reality is that there is no nutritional value in sago. It fills them up and but does not give them back the energy required to pound it. They told us that rice was Rp65,000 a bag and that they couldn't afford to buy it.
"We travelled on into the Suai district via Atambua. We were told there that it is estimated 20,000 people were suffering severe hunger. We were told us that in the nearby village of Efudin, just over the border in West Timor, between Kefa and Oecussi, 85 people had [next page]