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February 2009 Congratulations to Dr Donald Sinclair OAM, National President of Ryder-Cheshire Australia, on being awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours 2009. The award was made for "service to the community, particularly through the Ryder-Cheshire Foundation, to education and to a range of professional associations"

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 29^th May following several weeks of violence in Dili and the surrounding areas.
On the afternoon of Monday 22^nd 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 28^th 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