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News Articles
June 2006 News at Klibur Domin, East Timor Peter Newton, Project Officer, Klibur Domin
The period since our last Newsletter has been extremely
difficult for the staff, volunteers, patients and residents at Klibur Domin.
Readers will have followed the events in East Timor since the sacking of 600
Army personnel in March and the subsequent violence, killings, rampaging and
arson that have thrown this new nation into chaos not seen since September
1999. The village of Tibar, adjacent to Klibur Domin, was the site of one
of the major battles between the “petitioners” or rebel soldiers and the
supposedly loyal forces in late May. It is understood that 8 or 9 people
were killed in Tibar during this battle.
Jane Shamrock, a volunteer at the home, describes the action in the
following article. Despite being surrounded by gunfire and explosions,
Klibur Domin escaped any damage to its infrastructure, vehicles and
equipment. More importantly, none of the patients, residents, staff or
volunteers were injured, notwithstanding that many will have been seriously
traumatised and will need months to fully recover their emotional well
being.
The fact that Klibur Domin continued to operate throughout the troubles was
a great tribute to the dedication of the staff and volunteers. Not only did
they continue their care of the patients and residents, but they also
provided assistance to a growing number of refugees who had fled Dili. This
activity was still underway at the time of writing of this article.
On one occasion during the height of the two day battle, when I was able to
make phone contact with the volunteers at Klibur Domin, I could hear the
gunfire in the background. I asked what they were doing at the time and was
amazed to hear that they had just finished physiotherapy and other normal
duties were being performed.
Shortly after the height of the crisis, two Australian volunteers were
evacuated, but three others refused to leave the Home as they considered
that the situation had improved and that their tasks were too important.
Unquestionably this helped the Home to continue running smoothly and
probably stopped any possibility of looting by local disaffected youths.
Of great concern were the death threats made to Joaquim, the Home Manager,
and Alberto, the Nurse, and to a number of patients. These were no doubt as
a result of the friction between those from the east and those from the west
of East Timor. Joaquim, Alberto and the threatened patients all came from
the east while Tibar village is 15 kilometres west of Dili. Hopefully this
divide on geographical lines will settle as the political situation
stabilises.
Patricia McDonell, who has spent more than 30 months at the Home and who had
only returned at the end of December has made a 10 day visit to assess the
situation and advise on what help is needed from the Foundations in
Australia. We remain ready to provide whatever assistance is sought, within
our resource limitations. Included in this will be food, clothing,
household and personal items needed by those who have lost everything in the
arson and vandalism. Already, Ryder-Cheshire volunteers in Melbourne have
been involved in loading containers with humanitarian aid and more is
planned in the near future.
I am sure that many supporters will be extremely disappointed that this
crisis has occurred and most will not be able to understand how some small
elements of the East Timorese society could be party to such violence. We
must all remember however that the majority of East Timorese are peace
loving people who were the victims of the violent few. They have suffered
and need our help once again.
Shortly after the problems of September 1999, the Foundation became aware of
a 13 year old girl who needed major heart surgery if she was to survive the
next 12 months. Isaura Da Silva was brought to Melbourne and successfully
operated on at the Monash Medical Centre. Isaura is now 19 and will be
returning to Melbourne shortly for a follow up operation. Our thoughts and
prayers are with her and with all who are suffering as a result of the
recent violence .
Peter Newton
Project Officer, Klibur Domin
Klibur Domin
and The Tibar Incident - June 2006
Jane Shamrock is an Australian Volunteer Occupational Therapist who
worked at Klibur Domin. Jane was selected by Australian Volunteers
International (AVI) to be the Project Coordinator for the Children with
Disabilities Outreach Project and the Mobile TB Outreach Project. She
commenced work at the end of February 2006 on an 18 month assignment. Jane
will return to Klibur Domin as soon as the security situation in East Timor
allows her safe return.
I was a volunteer at
Klibur Domin for the first part of 2006 and left East Timor on 29th
May following several weeks of violence in Dili and the surrounding areas.
On the afternoon of Monday 22nd May I went to Dili to take an
opportunity of a gap in my schedule to complete some banking. As I returned
past the usually sleepy intersection at Tibar, (12 kms from Dili where the
road divides to either Liquica or Ermera) I was surprised to see groups of
youths standing in the road with a large man wielding a pistol in the centre
of the group. I wound down my car windows to look as harmless as possible
and was waved on.
The following day another volunteer passed through the intersection and was
asked to get out of the car and be scrutinised by the now very large group
of young men, armed with knives, spears, bows and arrows or guns. She was
allowed to continue after an inspection of the vehicle.
The following morning at about 7.30 am all of us at Klibur Domin became
aware of gunshots. We heard single shots, rapid fire and later in the
morning the thud of heavier weaponry. The sound of gunfire stopped for about
1 1/2 hours at lunch time then started up again and continued until very
late into the night. We heard rumours that the gunfight was designed to make
an impression so that international forces would come in to help the
deteriorating faction disputes between the military and the police in East
Timor .
We also heard that there were two gun-boats in Tibar bay and that these were
firing on the surrounding hills. We heard that these boats belonged to the
Falintil who were firing on the 'petitioners', the so-called 'rebel' group
of the army from the west of the country, where Klibur Domin is situated.
The following day the fighting continued though there seemed to be none of
the heavy sounds which we had learnt to associate with the gun-boats. By
evening the gun-shots had almost stopped.
Over the following days most of the non-essential activities at Klibur Domin
had stopped. By now Dili was burning and the international troops were
arriving. The Hercules aircraft could be heard circling around and around
the city. People concentrated on helping Timorese locate missing family
members and provide food to various refugees. By Saturday a rhythm was
developing to our days and I was able to have a planning meeting with the
staff from the Community Based Rehabilitation project in anticipation of a
return to more normal activities.
During this time there were four volunteer women working at Klibur Domin .
As one of these four volunteers I was able to see first hand how the
Timorese handled this very stressful and demanding situation.
At the time of the 'Tibar Incident', (which received very little mention in
the local press,) the Timorese manager and his family had already left as he
is from the East of East Timor . He and his family as well as other staff
and patients from the east of the country had received death threats two
weeks previously.
During the beginning of the gunfight the cooks were rightfully terrified,
however as we foreigners bumbled around with the meal preparation the cooks
reappeared and from then on meals were always prepared on time. As some of
the staff had disappeared the cooks appreciated a bit of extra help at
times, especially as obtaining food became a problem. As many patients as
possible were sent home and others ran away so that the pressure of care was
reduced as much as possible. At the time I left there were only 7 patients
in Klibur Domin .
At one stage a group of young men came into the compound, sat on the ground
and began chatting about what consumer goods they would take when the
foreigners ran away. They were sent away by the staff and their names were
given to the village chief.
By about Friday the events known as the Great Chook Incident occurred.
People coming up the road from the Tibar intersection reported that Tibar
itself was full of chooks. The prevailing story was that battery chook sheds
in Tibar were owned by a member of the Falintil who definitely would not be
reappearing for a long time. Someone released the chooks as they were unable
to get food for themselves. Locals began scooping up chooks, loading them
into boxes and barrows, hanging them on bicycles, draping them over the
backs of trucks, finally people from surrounding districts began appearing
to do the same. That evening there was an atmosphere of contented calm in
Tibar as people began cooking and eating their chooks. The following day the
last of the chooks could be seen being carried away on bicycles or draped
over the front of mini-buses.
Klibur Domin, as usual seemed to be seen as a sanctuary and a resource.
There were requests for help to supply food for the hundreds of refugees in
the homes of friends or family or in the hills around Tibar. There were many
requests to use the phone to look for family members missing in Dili or to
see if homes in Dili had been damaged in the riots.
After the fighting in Dili on 28th April thousands of Timorese
had abandoned their homes and fled to the hills, many to the Tibar area.
Klibur Domin staff soon began counting and collecting names of refugees in
the Tibar valley. The list was constantly being up-dated. This was long
before authorities in other districts began attempting head-counting to
facilitate food aid in their own areas.
It was a particularly frightening time, however Klibur Domin continued to
carry out it core business despite the atmosphere of intense uncertainly.
This solidarity was helped by firm leadership from the Chefe Suco and the
Chefe Aldea, the local village chiefs. It was a frightening experience but
heartening to see the solid goodness, strength and dignity of the local
staff.
I was unable to leave Klibur Domin on the flights planned by AVI (Australian
Volunteers International who are funding my placement at Klibur Domin). This
was because the road to the airport was blocked in several places and there
was rioting along a section of road. A week later I was able to take an
opportunity to leave and went back to Darwin in one of the Hercules
aircraft.
Jane Shamrock
Volunteer Project Coordinator