Four Corners

The Vanishing (1999x30)

Uitzenddatum: Okt 18, 1999

Four weeks ago '4 Corners' produced 'Silenced Majority', the story of the referendum ballot and its immediate aftermath. 'The Vanishing' continues the story of the East Timorese people, but this time from the other side of the border. After the announcement of the referendum result, thousands of people of East Timor were killed and hundreds of thousands became refugees. By the time Interfet forces arrived on September 20, nearly half a million East Timorese had vanished - forced from their homes by the Indonesian army and their proxies in the militas. Many fled to the hills and found sanctuary with Falantil, the East Timorese armed resistance, but most were loaded at gunpoint onto planes, boats and trucks and transported across the border to West Timor.