Multinational forces in East Timor have found only 2,500 people, 6 per cent of the original population, in the enclave of Oecussi and can only speculate where the rest may be, a spokesman said yesterday.
UN sources said they believed 40,000 people once lived in Oecussi, on the north coast of Indonesian-controlled West Timor.
"We will certainly be looking to get humanitarian assistance and NGO elements into that region as part of the continuing build-up of Interfet forces in the enclave," said Col Mark Kelly, a spokesman for the multinational force.
Forty militia members were detained and disarmed on Friday when Interfet first landed in Oecussi, the last part of East Timor to come under Interfet.
David Shanks adds: Mrs Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has defended her choice of independent human rights experts for East Timor against objections raised by Mr Jose Ramos Horta, the Nobel Peace laureate and Timorese leader.
Mr Horta, in an interview on BBC, criticised in particular the choice of Ms Judith Sefi Attah of Nigeria, saying that she had been an apologist for the Abacha dictatorship in her country. He also criticised the choices of Mr A.M. Ahmadi from India and Mr Mari Kapi of Papua New Guinea, because of an Asian perspective likely to be sympathetic to Indonesia.
A spokesman for Mrs Robinson told The Irish Times that Ms Sefi Attah, a former minister in the Abacha government, had "for a very long time been an independent expert on a sub-commission of the UN Commission for Human Rights". She had worked since the 1950s for the rights of minorities, including indigenous peoples, and on human rights education.
Mr Ahmadi is a former chief justice of India and Mr Kapi is the deputy chief Justice of Papua New Guinea, he added.