48 East Timorese seek protection in NTT
48 East Timorese seek protection in NTT
Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara
As many as 48 East Timorese citizens sneaked into East Nusa
Tenggara (NTT) province seeking protection from the Indonesia
government, claiming they were victims of intimidation, police
said on Friday.
Twenty-six of them were accommodated at Belu Police Station,
while the remaining 22 are staying at camps along with other East
Timorese refugees.
Belu Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Agus Nugroho said the 48 East
Timorese were from Balibo subdistrict, Bobonaro district, East
Timor, and claimed to have been "terrorized and intimidated" by
their East Timorese neighbors.
They managed to sneak into East Nusa Tenggara, despite tight
border security, he added.
Agus said the 48 were among some 250,000 East Timorese who had
fled the carnage at the hands of militia in their homeland in
1999 after it voted to break away from Indonesia in an
independence vote.
"They had returned home to Timor Leste (East Timor) under the
repatriation program in 2001 after taking refuge in Atambua, Belu
regency," he said, adding that some of the 48 refugees were women
and children.
Agus said the escape of these East Timorese citizens would
affect the smooth repatriation of thousands of refugees still
languishing at the camps across East Nusa Tenggara.
The Indonesian government is waiting for a response from the
East Timor administration in order to deport its 48 citizens, he
said.
"We will not go home because we don't want to be bullied by
the East Timorese people who do not want us to live there," said
Emersia da Cruz, one of the 48 refugees.
Kupang's Wirasakti military commander Col. Moeswarno Moesanip
confirmed the presence of the 48 East Timorese citizens who were
seeking protection in Atambua.
East Timor's economic recession has also forced them to return
to Indonesia to escape destitution in the neighboring country, he
said.
Moesanip said that an exodus of more East Timorese people
would hit East Nusa Tenggara and other Indonesian provinces, if
the Xanana Gusmao government failed to resolve economic
difficulties confronting its citizens.