(18 Sep 1999) English/Nat
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, has arrived in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta to discuss the refugee crisis in East Timor with Indonesian officials.
Early on Saturday she met with UNHCR staff who briefed her about latest situation in East Timor.
Mrs Ogata is due to tour refugee camps on Sunday and is scheduled to meet President B.J.Habibie on Monday.
Sadako Ogata, the UNHCR High Commissioner, arrived to Jakarta, to discuss the growing refugee crisis with Indonesian authorities.
Upon the arrival she heard the latest news from Dili, the East Timorese capital.
Officials of the U-N High Commission for Refugees have been granted only limited access to thousands of refugees in the area, said Christian Koch, head of the mission and one of the few foreigners left in Dili.
Koch, who flew with his colleagues to Jakarta to brief Ogata, said some militiamen and Indonesian troops had left the province ahead of the expected arrival of a U-N peacekeeping force.
But he added pro-Indonesian militiamen continue circulating freely, with machetes and guns terrorizing the inhabitants of the city.
Ogata said the Indonesian authorities appeared to be cooperating adequately with UNHCR's refugee relief effort.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We are getting cooperation but I hope to get it more and try to agree on where exactly the cooperation is going to be advanced.
Question: Is it satisfactory at this point?
Answer: My colleagues -- I have to ask my colleagues, because I've just arrived -- I think so."
SUPERCAPTION: Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Ogata is due to travel to the refugee-packed towns of Kupang and Atambua in West Timor on Sunday.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
Question: What's the primary concern right now?
Answer: People.
SUPERCAPTION: Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Ogata afterwards spoke to Japanese reporters.
UNHCR reported on Friday that the situation was increasingly bad in West Timor, where an estimated 150-thousand people are gathered after fleeing anti-independence militias or being forcibly deported.
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