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.