35,000 pro-Jakarta militia will return to East Timor

Yemris Fointuna The Jakarta Post Kupang

Former commander of a East Timorese pro-Jakarta militia group (PPI) Joao da Silva Tavares and his almost 35,000 followers are expected to return home to East Timor soon.

Tavares disclosed his intention during a secret meeting with chief of the Udayana Regional Military Command overseeing Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara provinces, Maj. Gen. Willem T. da Costa, in the East Nusa Tenggara town of Atambua on Thursday.

"Tavares seriously wants to return home. He plans to return to East Timor this month, but the East Timor government is still considering his demand for a transit camp for former PPI members and refugees," da Costa told the media.

During the meeting, da Costa offered corn seeds, rice seeds, hoes and tractors to Tavares and his followers to start afresh in East Timor.

Tavares said separately that the arrangement to return home was a final decision.

"For sure, I and my supporters will return home soon. We shall await the results of negotiation and reconciliation in the next few days," he said.

The first phase of negotiation and reconciliation meetings between the Indonesian government, East Timor government, East Timorese community leaders, the UN and former PPI supporters took place in Atambua on June 14.

Belu district military commander Lt. Col. Tjus Agus Minahasa said the second-round reconciliation meeting would be held in Bobonaro, East Timor, on June 24.

"The second meeting was aimed at listening to the readiness of East Timor to welcome Tavares and his followers," he said.

Minahasa confirmed that the repatriation was expected in the middle of this year.

"About 35,000 people will return simultaneously. That's why the East Timor government has to consider this matter seriously," he added.

In the first reconciliation meeting on June 14, the government of East Timor expressed readiness to issue a security guarantee to PPI members and not to impose tax on them for a year.

Pro-Jakarta militiamen, with the backing of the Indonesian military, were blamed for the carnage and demolition in East Timor following a UN-sponsored ballot in August 1999, the result of which revealed that most East Timorese preferred independence from Indonesia.