Independence guerrillas were trying yesterday to protect thousands of refugees who fled to the mountains around Dili to escape armed pro-Jakarta militias, Timorese leaders in Australia said. Tens of thousands of refugees, many of them women, children and the elderly now living on leaves and roots in the jungle-clad mountains, were being cared for by FALINTIL, the armed wing of East Timor's resistance, they said.
Mr Joao Carrascalao, the resistance spokesman, said Indonesian troops were provoking skirmishes with FALINTIL, who had to fight to protect the refugees despite their truce. "To avoid these people from being slaughtered they have to take defensive positions, and then combat is inevitable," he told Australian radio.
Mr Carrascalao said fighting broke out on Monday night near the towns of Bobonaro and Ermera, with seven Indonesian soldiers and one FALINTIL fighter killed. He said resistance forces had intercepted Indonesian troop communications about a mortar attack planned on the town of Dare to scatter the refugees from their shelters.
"The plan is to fire mortar[s] to these people and when they try and run away, they shoot them down," Mr Carrascalao said.
"We expected it to happen yesterday, but fortunately nothing happened. It could happen at any moment," he said.
Mr Agio Pereira, a member of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) in Australia, said separately that the resistance forces were duty bound to try to protect the East Timorese refugees.
"FALINTIL is in a very difficult situation. The armed forces of national liberation, FALINTIL, is looking after this [refugee] population," Mr Pereira said. "The situation is very chaotic, but what transcends from all of this is the sense of dignity of our people, the sense of unity and the perseverance of our people," he said.
Television images broadcast in Australia showed terrified East Timorese struggling up a steep, rock-strewn side of a mountain outside Dili, carrying handbags, water bottles on their backs and small children in their arms. A small child howled uncontrollably, and women sobbed after more killings.
In a makeshift camp, refugees huddled around a hut, with no belongings, just the clothes they were wearing.
"We have no food, we have no water, we have no clothes, no blankets - it is cold here," said Ms Armandina Gusmao, sister of East Timor's independence leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao.
"All of our houses were burned, we have nothing, we are left with our own clothes and our bodies," Ms Gusmao told CNN from near Dare, one day's walk from Dili.
Mr Xanana was released last week after six years in Indonesian jails but has not returned to East Timor because of safety concerns. He is now in the British embassy in Jakarta.
A reporter, Rob Caroll, hiding with the refugees near Dare, said fear was widespread among the East Timorese as they tried to find food and water.
"The atmosphere here is one of great despondency, fear, anxiety, insecurity," Mr Caroll told CNN. "Most people have lost family members, they can't locate brothers, sisters, parents, husbands, wives." Mr Pereira said he had heard from East Timorese in the mountains yesterday that some women had killed themselves to prevent being raped during recent militia attacks.
The FALINTIL leader, Mr Gusmao, confirmed that troops and militias had attacked guerrilla camps for the first time since the vote for independence. Telling Portuguese radio that he thought Indonesia was trying to delay the international force, he added: "We thought there could be some massacres, but we never imagined their response would be so barbarous."