E. Timor refugee disaster looms as aid deadline nears

E. Timor refugee disaster looms as aid deadline nears

By Fabiola Desy Unidjaja

ATTAMBUA, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): A colossal humanitarian
disaster involving 100,000 refugees is looming as the March 31
aid cutoff date approaches for those East Timorese remaining in
Indonesia.

The Indonesian government has set the deadline for the
refugees to choose whether they wish to remain Indonesian
citizens or be forcibly repatriated to East Timor.

More importantly, on that date the government will also stop
giving humanitarian aid to East Timorese refugee camps.

The decision is a reasonable one for the government, who,
faced with limited resources, cannot support these refugees for
an indeterminate length of time while there are also another
400,000 refugees from various other conflicts across the country
who need attention.

While there are numerous international agencies who are
assisting East Timorese refugees, local officials have pointed
out that their combined assistance accounts for less than one-
tenth of the daily cost of supporting the refugees. The rest of
the burden is shouldered by the Indonesian government.

The immediate choice facing the refugees is daunting.

If they choose Indonesian citizenship, they will be moved to
another part of the country, away from their customary
environment to one that is totally alien.

But if they choose to return to East Timor, they will face
uncertainty and the possibility of terror.

Those wishing to return are haunted by reports of insecurity
in East Timor, while the repatriation program itself seems to be
moving very slowly.

They are now faced with the threat of not receiving food aid
once the deadline has passed.

A project officer from international nongovernmental
organization (NGO) Care International has warned of disaster if
the government cuts its aid.

"If the government stops aid these refugees will die, it's as
simple as that," said the aid worker, who asked not to be named,
recently.

Each refugee currently receives Rp 1,500 and 400 grams of rice
per day from the Indonesian government. It is distributed monthly
by the local social services agency.

Children under five years old and pregnant women may claim
additional daily food.

The government also takes care of clean water supplies,
medicines, sanitation facilities and building materials for the
some 20 camps across the province.

Burden

East Nusa Tenggara Vice Governor Johanes Pake Pani said the
cutoff date was not due to a lack of compassion, but was rather
down to plain financial concerns, as the refugees were a huge
burden for the local administration.

"Almost 80 percent of the people (in the province) are already
poor, and yet for over six months we have had to take care of
these refugees. We cannot afford it anymore," he told The Jakarta
Post.

Pani pointed out that the administration would like to help
but it had already allocated much of its own budget for the
refugees.

Indonesia has allocated US$40 million in its state budget for
refugees across the country, not just in East Nusa Tenggara.
Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare and Poverty Eradication
Basri Hassanudin estimates that $110 million is needed.

Vice Governor Pani noted that international agencies provide
some basic necessities but he said foreign assistance in total
currently contributed to less than 10 percent of the assistance
provided to East Timor refugees.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
officer in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara's provincial capital, Craig
Sanders said the UN simply did not have the resources to further
expand assistance.

"We should have no illusions that the UN has the resources and
the money to help finance these people alone," Craig said,
stressing that the refugees were the responsibility of the
Indonesian government.

He conceded that the UN was aware of the potential of
increased mortality and disease rates and of the social tragedy
that may occur if the deadline was imposed.

The UN cannot do much about it, he remarked.

Even with current combined efforts, over 530 refugees have
died in the camps in the last six months, most from diarrhea and
as a result of respiratory problems.

Comments from UN officials seem aimed at washing the
institution of responsibility and leaving the bulk of the burden
on the Indonesian government.

A senior humanitarian affairs officer from the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Kupang,
Enayet Madani, told the Post that the UN were here to assist the
Indonesian government in the refugees problem, not to be
responsible for it.

"The UN stance is clear -- we are not going to take over the
responsibility from the government," Madani said.

Negotiations are said to be underway in Jakarta on extending
the deadline. However with less than a week to go the situation
looks bleak.

Refugees who spoke to the Post seemed distressed at the
prospect facing them and clueless as to what to do about it.

A refugee in the Haliwen camp near Attambua remarked that even
with the assistance currently received many people were still
going hungry. It is difficult to imagine what it would be like if
the aid is officially stopped.

"Only (refugees who are) former military officials and civil
servants have enough food because they also receive salaries and
rice subsidies from their jobs, while the ordinary refugees rely
on the food aid," Josinto, 36, said.

Survival

Sinda Araujo, another refugee in Haliwen, said food assistance
was the only means of sustaining survival. The 35-year-old woman
from Maliana said she had also been in this situation before.

In 1975 she and her parents were forced to flee to West Timor
during the violence after the Portuguese left the territory.

Now she has found herself again in a refugee camp.

She says she wants to stay in Indonesia because her husband
was shot during the postballot mayhem and her two brothers were
murdered two weeks ago after they had arrived in East Timor.

Lusi Alberto, 29, said she and her husband had yet to decide
on their future despite the fast-approaching deadline.

"I don't know what to do, but I still believe something can be
done if we try," she said.

Some are choosing to ignore the issue.

Olandina Da Silva Ximenes, 45, who stays in Toapukan camp,
Kupang regency, said she knew of the deadline but was not taking
it seriously.

"I still believe the Indonesian government will not leave us
to die in this place," she said.

A widow with five children, Olandina said her husband was a
military officer and killed during the postballot mayhem.

Olandina, who lives with her two teenage daughters in the
camp, said her three sons had gone to Dili and warned her not to
return.

"Everything I own there -- my house, my crops -- has been
taken away by the CNRT and nobody seems to be responsible for our
security there," Olandina told the Post in the camp located
around 15 kilometers from Kupang.

The CNRT is the Proindependence Council for East Timor
Resistance.

Another refugee in the same camp, Jorge Mau Das, 36, said he
wanted to go back but feared for his family's security.

"I want to go back but I can't now. I have to wait for the
sake of my family," he said with an empty look in his eyes.

Jorge said that he favored East Timorese independence and had
voted to reject Indonesia's offer for wide-ranging autonomy in
the Aug. 30 ballot.

He is listed as among those who would like to remain
Indonesian and join the transmigration program with the hope of
someday returning to East Timor.

"I choose freedom because I wanted to be led by my own people.
Now white people have taken control there," he said.

One of those who is registered to be repatriated to East Timor
is Oline Da Sil.

"I want to go back home and I have already registered but I
don't know when those people will send me back," said the widow,
who makes extra money by selling vegetables she buys from a
nearby market to fellow refugees. (dja)