Additional Emergency Assistance for Timor

MEDIA RELEASE

Released By:
Downer

The Australian Government will provide additional funding of $4 million
to assist the many hundreds of thousands of people in both West and East
Timor who have been displaced or affected by the recent violence.

The Government continues to be extremely concerned about the condition
and fate of displaced people in East and West Timor. We are working quickly
to deliver emergency relief, protection and support. An improvement in
the security situation across East Timor following the deployment of INTERFET
will enable aid agencies to provide urgently-needed assistance to the
hundreds of thousands of people.

This additional funding will be used to transport emergency relief supplies
to East Timor, including through the use of ADF and commercial charter
aircraft and shipping. It will also assist non-government organisations
that are working to help people displaced by the conflict.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will receive $500,000
to assist its work in providing protection for displaced people and the
reunification of families in both East and West Timor.

Australian non-government organisations such as CARE Australia, Community
Aid Abroad/Oxfam, Australian Red Cross and World Vision will each receive
$250,000 to support their work in delivering rapid and effective emergency
relief to displaced people in East and West Timor.

Australia, through its overseas aid agency, AusAID, is working closely
with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) and other agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) and United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in supporting the relief
operation.

This contribution is in addition to the extensive work that Australia
is already undertaking to support humanitarian relief activities for the
people of East Timor, including the purchase of emergency supplies such
as food and shelter materials, assisting the work of United Nations relief
agencies, and setting up a large-scale logistical operation in Darwin.