Australia supports repatriation of refugees

Australia supports repatriation of refugees

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

The Australian government fully supports Indonesia's policy of
halting food aid to East Timorese refugees in East Nusa Tenggara
province by the end of December 2001 as part of an effort to help
solve the refugee problem, an Australian diplomat has said.

Richard Smith, Australian ambassador to Indonesia, said that
the Indonesian government's policy was expected to speed up the
repatriation of more than 143,000 East Timorese refugees in the
province.

Smith made the statement after handing over US$7 million in
Australian government financial assistance for the repatriation
program to East Nusa Tenggara Governor Piet A. Tallo in a
ceremony at the latter's office here on Monday.

"Australia has donated $7 million to help speed up the
repatriation of the East Timorese refugees and it fully supports
the Indonesian government's step in stopping financial and food
aid for the refugees," he said.

He added that the Australian support was also aimed at
speeding up the reconciliation process among East Timorese people
following the 1999 ballot in East Timor that had produced
widespread and prolonged disunity among them.

Tallo asserted that the government had made the decision to
cut of assistance to the refugees in an endeavor to help speed up
their repatriation.

"We are very sorry the refugees have lived in uncertainty for
more than two years in camps here in the province," he said, "So,
the repatriation program is aimed at alleviating the long
suffering of the East Timorese refugees."

Of the 295,000 East Timorese that fled the bloody mayhem in
East Timor after the ballot, a total of 152,000 have already
returned to their homeland. The government has been providing Rp
1,500 and 400 grams of rice per person per day to the East
Timorese refugees, and has recently offered to pay Rp 500,000 to
those who chose to return home.

The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) has
given security guarantees to all refugees who wish to go back to
the territory.

On Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Willem T. da Costa, commander of the
Udayana Military Command supervising Bali, and West and East Nusa
Tenggara, said all refugee camps in the province would be closed
permanently following the halting off of financial and food
assistance to the refugees on Jan. 1, 2002.

"The government has done its best for the refugees, but the
aid will have to be stopped because of the country's precarious
economic situation. Therefore, all the refugee camps will be
closed down simultaneously," he said.

In a face-to-face meeting with East Timorese refugees living
in Tuapukan and Noelbaki in Kupang regency, da Costa called on
the refugees to chose to either return home or stay in Indonesia.

"After the camps are closed, all refugees who want to stay in
the province will be treated as Indonesian citizens with the same
civil rights as other Indonesians," he said.

Dili's Bishop Felipe Ximenes Belo, East Timorese leader Jose
Alessandro "Xanana" Gusmao and UNTAET officials are scheduled to
visit the East Timorese refugees in the province before the end
of this month to persuade them to return home.