CATHOLIC aid and support agencies are poised to provide continuing assistance in East Timor as a new humanitarian crisis looms amid escalating violence in the fledgling nation.
Caritas Australia deployed additional Australian staff to East Timor last week.
Caritas Australia is working in conjunction with its international Caritas partners, a confederation of 162 Catholic aid agencies, which have formed a joint assessment team to co-ordinate the Caritas humanitarian response.
Meanwhile, five members of a Catholic volunteer agency were evacuated from East Timor to Townsville on May 25.
The Palms volunteers were evacuated as the first Australian troops landed in East Timor to secure the country.
Palms is among several Catholic agencies that are closely monitoring the situation of the thousands of displaced families in East Timor who fled their homes as violence increased with the killing of more than 20 people on the streets of Dili.
The unrest was triggered by the firing of 600 disgruntled soldiers from East Timor’s 1400-member army in March.
As the situation in Dili worsens, the Church is providing a sanctuary for many of the people fleeing their homes.
Catholic Mission is helping sustain the Church by providing funds to the two Catholic dioceses in East Timor, Dili and Baucau.
Brisbane based Enoggera Barracks chaplain, Deacon Gary Stone, recently returned from Dili after seeing his sons, Michael, an Australian Army major and Paul, a humanitarian aid worker.
Deacon Stone said last week the majority of East Timorese were wonderful people who wept over the tragedy that had unfolded.
Former Australian Defence Force chief General Peter Cosgrove said in Brisbane on May 25 that the flare-up of fighting was sad but not unexpected.
General Cosgrove, who led Australia’s peacekeeping forces in East Timor in 1999, said it was not uncommon that new nations suffered teething problems.
Daughter of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Sister Tess Ward told ABC TV’s 7.30 Report on May 24 the main problem in Dili was unemployment.
She said she doubted East Timor would descend into civil war.
