East Timor

Dr. Ramin Ahmadi traveled to East Timor to help establish an outpatient care clinic that provides care to hundreds of malaria and tuberculosis patients a day.

When the country emerged from repression in 1999, the Timorese people were bruised and beaten, but not broken. Close to one-third of the population died from murder, torture and starvation, during 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. The United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) organized and conducted a popular consultation, determining that 78.5% of East Timorese voted for independence. As UNAMET forces left in August of 1999, violence erupted and the pro-integration militias, with support from Indonesian security forces, launched a campaign of terror, looting, burning and killing, throughout the entire territory. As a result of the mass violence, thousands of East Timorese fled to the mountains. In the aftermath of this frenzy, an estimated 250,000 people became refugees in the neighboring Indonesian territory, West Timor. Under pressure from the international community, the government of Indonesia agreed to accept intervention from a UN multinational peacekeeping force. As the UN re-established its headquarters in Dili and began efforts to restore security and peace, thousands of refugees returned to East Timor.

Tragically, twenty-five years of neglect revealed that Indonesia had greatly neglected its 27th province, and the health status of its people was abysmal. Tuberculosis and Malaria are as common in East Timor as the flu in the United States. Of the 750,000 people who remain in the country, only 25 of them are doctors, equaling one doctor for 30,000 people. This number is unsurpassed by any other developing nation. Like many other refugees and internally displaced people, the East Timorese had to come to terms with the destruction of their homes, the loss of family members and the traumatic experience of human rights abuses.

While in East Timor, Dr. Ahmadi met Hong Kong tycoon Eric Hotung, who donated $50,000 to the Griffin Center for Health and Human Rights to build an outpatient clinic. Within just a few weeks, a new clinic was put in place of the old, and now serves the local people in the area. Patients include “mountain men,” peasants who began fighting the Indonesian occupation after their 1975 invasion, and women and children who were lucky enough to escape the tortures, murders and rapes.

Later in the year, Dr. Ahmadi was joined by four volunteers to East Timor, to assist at the local clinic treating patients and studying post traumatic stress disorder among the refuges. Volunteers on the trip included Dr. Dorothea Wild, Associate Program Director of Griffin’s Internal/Preventive Medicine program. During her stay, Dr. Wild assisted Dr. Dan Murphy in seeing around 100-200 outpatients per day and helped supervise the care of 16 inpatients in the general ward and maternity. About two-thirds of the patients were mothers and children; the other one-third was comprised of adults between 30-60 years.

During her experience in Dili East Timor during August of 2000, Dr. Wild wrote:

“Currently East Timor is undergoing a transition from a humanitarian emergency situation into a more stable situation. It was a most rewarding and fascinating opportunity to meet East Timorese people, listen to their stories, and try to understand how they managed to withstand the oppression. It was also intriguing to observe how a health system is being borne. It is a special opportunity to influence the future East Timorese health system and attempt to prevent public health difficulties that are prevalent in other developing countries such as multi-drug-resistant TB or HIV.”

Click here to read Naval medical Center letter about Dr. Wild