353 Bugis migrants leave East Timor

AMBENO, East Timor (JP): Feeling insecure after last week's riot, 353 Bugis migrants, including 20 teachers, packed up and left for their homeland in South Sulawesi yesterday.

They decided to return after being accommodated in local police and military compounds since the incident in which one Bugis person was killed and 80 migrants' houses razed.

"How could they stand living in Ambeno, while they were homeless and had nothing to survive on?" Ambeno district police chief Maj. Gusti Made Putu told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

He said he could understand that going back home was the best solution for the migrants, who were mostly traders, because they could get financial support from their relatives.

Gusti said the Bugis were escorted by mobile brigade police officers while they prepared to leave the area from the town of Kefa in East Nusa Tenggara.

Ambeno regent Filomeno da Costa Mesquita said Tuesday that he had persuaded the migrants to stay in Ambeno. "They refused to stay because they would be in danger if they did."

Six thousand East Timorese went on a rampage on Feb. 21 after hearing that their priest, Lazarus Mau, had been given a box containing leftover food during a post-Idul Fitri gathering with local government officials two days earlier in the regency capital of Pantai Makasar.

The angry mob also set fire to 86 houses belonging to the Bugis community and destroyed three cars and four motorcycles.

Peace returned to this enclave only on Sunday after Lazarus, organizers of the gathering and local authorities met to settle the situation.

Lazarus said afterward the organizers had apologized for the misunderstanding. Regretting the incident, the priest announced to his Catholic congregation during Sunday's mass that the case had been resolved.

The police arrested three people Saturday on charges of inciting the riot. The police are also chasing a man suspected of fatally stabbing Mahmud Abuh, a 30-year-old migrant from South Sulawesi, and other rioters who burned down a market during the riot.

Eleven people, including a rioter identified as Agustinho Bonhe, 18, were injured in the incident.

Ambeno military district commander Lt. Col. Hambali has said the rioting, the first ever in the regency, caused an estimated Rp 2 billion (US$840,000) worth of damages. (33/imn)