The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
today launched the first major immunization campaign in East Timor since
last August's referendum on independence. Twenty thousand infants are to
be immunized against six childhood diseases.
At a press briefing in Dili today, Peter
Galbraith, the UN Director of Political Affairs in East Timor, explained
the significance of the communiqué signed in Dili yesterday between visiting
Indonesian President Abdurrhaman Wahid and UN Transitional Administrator
Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Francis Deng, the Secretary-General's special representative on Internally Displaced Persons, concluded a visit to East Timor with a press conference in Dili. He said that the internally displaced were coming back to looted and destroyed homes and total devastation, while refugees in West Timor were being intimidated by anti-independence militia. (Click here for more information.)