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Foreign humanitarian workers flee to Indonesia from East Timor

Jakarta (dpa) - Some 18 foreign workers and diplomats reportedly fled East Timor to neighbouring Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara province in Indonesia on Friday because of growing unrest in the Timorese capital, a regional military official said.

"Up to today we have accomodated 18 foreigners, mostly humanitarian workers and diplomats in Kupang, and a total of 54 Indonesians too," Colonel Noch Bola, ranking officer in Kupang, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Among those foreigners were American, Australian, Chinese, Korean, Filippino, and Portuguese, he said.

"Those foreigners fled Dili because of the unrest situation there, we will let them stay here in Kupang because they wish to go back to East Timor if situation gets better," Colonel Bola said, adding that some Timorese were also trying to leave their country, but Indonesian borders remained closed to them.

Media reports said about 600 hundred disgruntled soldiers cashiered from the East Timorese army were still heavily armed and creating chaos in Dili since Tuesday.

East Timor was a Portugese colony for more than 400 years before Indonesia invaded the territory in 1975 and annexed it the following year, a claim that was never recognized by the United Nations.

Indonesia's frequently brutal occupation, combined with starvation and disease, killed tens of thousands of East Timorese during Jakarta's reign.

Indonesia relinquished East Timor to the UN in October 1999. The territory proclaimed its independence on May 20, 2000. dpa dk tl

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