353 Bugis migrants leave East Timor<\/p>\n
AMBENO, East Timor (JP): Feeling insecure after last week's
\nriot, 353 Bugis migrants, including 20 teachers, packed up and
\nleft for their homeland in South Sulawesi yesterday.<\/p>\n
They decided to return after being accommodated in local
\npolice and military compounds since the incident in which one
\nBugis person was killed and 80 migrants' houses razed.<\/p>\n
\"How could they stand living in Ambeno, while they were
\nhomeless and had nothing to survive on?\" Ambeno district police
\nchief Maj. Gusti Made Putu told The Jakarta Post yesterday.<\/p>\n
He said he could understand that going back home was the best
\nsolution for the migrants, who were mostly traders, because they
\ncould get financial support from their relatives.<\/p>\n
Gusti said the Bugis were escorted by mobile brigade police
\nofficers while they prepared to leave the area from the town of
\nKefa in East Nusa Tenggara.<\/p>\n
Ambeno regent Filomeno da Costa Mesquita said Tuesday that he
\nhad persuaded the migrants to stay in Ambeno. \"They refused to
\nstay because they would be in danger if they did.\"<\/p>\n
Six thousand East Timorese went on a rampage on Feb. 21 after
\nhearing that their priest, Lazarus Mau, had been given a box
\ncontaining leftover food during a post-Idul Fitri gathering with
\nlocal government officials two days earlier in the regency
\ncapital of Pantai Makasar.<\/p>\n
The angry mob also set fire to 86 houses belonging to the
\nBugis community and destroyed three cars and four motorcycles.<\/p>\n
Peace returned to this enclave only on Sunday after Lazarus,
\norganizers of the gathering and local authorities met to settle
\nthe situation.<\/p>\n
Lazarus said afterward the organizers had apologized for the
\nmisunderstanding. Regretting the incident, the priest announced
\nto his Catholic congregation during Sunday's mass that the case
\nhad been resolved.<\/p>\n
The police arrested three people Saturday on charges of
\ninciting the riot. The police are also chasing a man suspected of
\nfatally stabbing Mahmud Abuh, a 30-year-old migrant from South
\nSulawesi, and other rioters who burned down a market during the
\nriot.<\/p>\n
Eleven people, including a rioter identified as Agustinho
\nBonhe, 18, were injured in the incident.<\/p>\n
Ambeno military district commander Lt. Col. Hambali has said
\nthe rioting, the first ever in the regency, caused an estimated
\nRp 2 billion (US$840,000) worth of damages. (33\/imn)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/353-bugis-migrants-leave-east-timor-1447893297",
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