Dili residents camping in squalor

DILI - As many as two-thirds of the population of Dili are now living in the squalor of makeshift refugee camps, packed by the thousands into churches, schools, government and United Nations compounds, around embassies in a sprawling shantytown stretching out from the city's airport.

One UN compound not much larger than a football field is home to about 10,000 people.

Another 1000 live at Motael Church, on the seafront near the New Zealand Embassy.

The Don Bosco Catholic education centre, built for 150 students, houses 13,000, many of whom have lost homes to the waves of violence that have devastated Timor Leste since late last month.

All are too terrified to return whether they have houses or not.

The gangs of youths rampaging through the desperately poor suburbs with machetes, axes, clubs, spears and cans of petrol continue to force people to find safe refuge.

Many more are hiding in the hills, refusing to heed calls by Timorese and military leaders to return.

Renewed violence this week saw more pack their meagre possessions into cars, the backs of trucks, over motorcycle seats or bicycles, on their heads or in carts and trudging to the camps or out of town.

A key aim of the Australian-led intervention force has been to clear the streets sufficiently of violence to encourage people to return to their homes. But despite sweeps of the streets by soldiers that have seized hundreds of weapons, the gangs have stayed on the rampage, often ignoring - even taunting - troops called to troublespots.

Priests and nuns running many of the refuges report violence within the camps, and thugs waiting outside to attack or intimidate refugees, or to hinder the delivery of essential services.

Water tankers and waste disposal contractors vital to the hygiene and health of tens of thousands of people who are extremely vulnerable to sweeping epidemics have been turned back.

Surveys by non-government aid agencies this week estimated that 67,850 people were in the larger camps in Dili, and a further 5000 were housed beyond its limits.

When head counts at smaller compounds are completed the total could swell to as many as 100,000.

The population of Dili is estimated to be between 180,000 and 100,000.

Key concerns include security - although coalition force commander Brigadier Mick Slater has said he will provide escorts for aid supplies - and the basic needs of life.

The availability of food, water and sanitation varies from camp to camp. Some are appalling.

Queues several times the length of football fields shuffle forward endlessly in the centre of the city to collect rations of rice.