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."