austraLasia 1571
East Timor: reporting the reports, and an Australian response
DILI: 1st June 2006 -- Reporting on events in Dili at the moment can be tricky - the Salesian Family in the city (in international eyes the focus is all on Comoro, but there are other members of the Salesian Family in Dili) is faced with a calamitous situation and various unreported and unreportable events occur which austraLasia often receives firsthand, though with the proviso that they had best not be reported. The reality is that the men and women on the ground there are facing up to quite dangerous situations, dealing with them in ways that make us proud of their moral and spiritual - and sometimes physical - strength. This includes helping disarm and 'talk down' people who have been intent on killing one another.
One the other hand, the international press, including Catholic agencies, is also reporting these events. Only yesterday I read another version of item #1570 drawing, presumably, from the same source; the version came from a reputable agency - in fact a Vatican one - but it was not accurate in a range of details. So, in the interests of good reporting, we here at austraLasia do try to validate our sources and to inform the Salesian Family in our EAO region of both facts and opinion where the latter is being expressed by people who are actually there.
The Australian Catholic News is following events closely, with people in Dili. Today they report a Salesian at Comoro who describes his nation as "a divided people gripped in fear". He continues by saying "We don't know who the bad people are and who are our friends". He describes people as "suffering" inside the Centre. "There are a lot of people squeezed together inside a small space with no water and little food". In fact there could be as many as 10,000 people squeezed into that space, one fifth of the number regularly touted as refugees within their own city.
Salesian Missions in Australia have launched a nationwide appeal for humanitarian assistance to East Timor. "The Timorese need our help now more than ever" says Salesian Brother Michael Lynch, appeal coordinator and a regular visitor to East Timor.
Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI, recently returned from Poland with the horrors of war still fresh in his mind after the Auschwitz visit, appealed for peace in East Timor at the conclusion of his weekly audience: peace for a nation "wracked by tension and violence which has caused victims and destruction".
A Salesian who contacted austraLasia today indicates that the situation is a lot calmer in Dili at the moment, and that Portuguese troops are due to arrive in Dili within the next 24 hours. He also indicated that Ramos Horta, the Foreign Minister, has indicated already that the election scheduled for next year will be run by the UN. This is good news for the people, many of whom fear massive manipulation by the ruling party and a decided lurch to the left - further left than the Alkatiri-led government is already.
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please
contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm
East Timor: reporting the reports, and an Australian response
DILI: 1st June 2006 -- Reporting on events in Dili at the moment can be tricky - the Salesian Family in the city (in international eyes the focus is all on Comoro, but there are other members of the Salesian Family in Dili) is faced with a calamitous situation and various unreported and unreportable events occur which austraLasia often receives firsthand, though with the proviso that they had best not be reported. The reality is that the men and women on the ground there are facing up to quite dangerous situations, dealing with them in ways that make us proud of their moral and spiritual - and sometimes physical - strength. This includes helping disarm and 'talk down' people who have been intent on killing one another.
One the other hand, the international press, including Catholic agencies, is also reporting these events. Only yesterday I read another version of item #1570 drawing, presumably, from the same source; the version came from a reputable agency - in fact a Vatican one - but it was not accurate in a range of details. So, in the interests of good reporting, we here at austraLasia do try to validate our sources and to inform the Salesian Family in our EAO region of both facts and opinion where the latter is being expressed by people who are actually there.
The Australian Catholic News is following events closely, with people in Dili. Today they report a Salesian at Comoro who describes his nation as "a divided people gripped in fear". He continues by saying "We don't know who the bad people are and who are our friends". He describes people as "suffering" inside the Centre. "There are a lot of people squeezed together inside a small space with no water and little food". In fact there could be as many as 10,000 people squeezed into that space, one fifth of the number regularly touted as refugees within their own city.
Salesian Missions in Australia have launched a nationwide appeal for humanitarian assistance to East Timor. "The Timorese need our help now more than ever" says Salesian Brother Michael Lynch, appeal coordinator and a regular visitor to East Timor.
Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI, recently returned from Poland with the horrors of war still fresh in his mind after the Auschwitz visit, appealed for peace in East Timor at the conclusion of his weekly audience: peace for a nation "wracked by tension and violence which has caused victims and destruction".
A Salesian who contacted austraLasia today indicates that the situation is a lot calmer in Dili at the moment, and that Portuguese troops are due to arrive in Dili within the next 24 hours. He also indicated that Ramos Horta, the Foreign Minister, has indicated already that the election scheduled for next year will be run by the UN. This is good news for the people, many of whom fear massive manipulation by the ruling party and a decided lurch to the left - further left than the Alkatiri-led government is already.
____________________________________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please
contact admin@bosconet.aust.com Try out BoscoWiki to be interactive. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xm
