50,000 E. Timorese return home: UNHCR

50,000 E. Timorese return home: UNHCR

GENEVA (Agencies): Almost 50,000 East Timorese refugees have returned home this year, bringing to 174,000 the number who have gone back since October last year, the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.

UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said about 3,200 of them had returned home in the last four months under their own steam after aid workers withdrew from West Timor when three UNHCR staff were murdered in September.

"We're not providing transport with IOM (International Organization for Migration) ships, buses and planes so they have to do it on their own," Redmond said.

During the first eight months of the year, aid agencies organized convoys to transport the refugees home. Between 100,000 and 120,000 refugees remain in West Timor, Redmond said.

He added 350 refugee representatives had arrived in East Timor Friday from Kupang, in Indonesian West Timor, on a three-week visit to see if it is safe enough for others to return home.

The trip has been organized by the UN administration in East Timor with help from UNHCR.

The visits had been suspended since September, when all aid workers were evacuated from West Timor following the killing of three UN foreign aid workers by a pro-Indonesian militia mob in the border town of Atambua.

The visits are expected to help boost the numbers going back to East Timor, Redmond said, adding UNHCR has also stepped up efforts to counter misinformation circulating in West Timor refugee camps about conditions in East Timor.

Some 250,000 East Timorese fled or were forced over the border into West Timor amid violence sparked by the territory's overwhelming vote to end 24 years of Indonesian rule in August 1999.

UN officials say the biggest obstacle for potential returnees is a propaganda campaign by some militia leaders seeking to convince refugees it is too dangerous to return. Redmond said misinformation is still "rampant."