E. Timor refugees receive warm welcome in NTT

E. Timor refugees receive warm welcome in NTT

By Peter Tukan

DILI, East Timor (Antara): For many people in Atambua, an East
Nusa Tenggara town which shares a border with East Timor, the
4,500 East Timorese taking refuge there are no strangers.

Many of them are blood brothers. The people from the two
provinces are of one ethnic group, separated by the Portuguese
colonialists who landed in Timor in 1546.

For the Atambua residents in Belu regency, hosting refugees
from East Timor is not a new experience. Following the bloody
civil war in East Timor in 1975, thousands of East Timorese
streamed in to Atambua seeking refuge.

"We are not surprised the East Timor people have sought refuge
in Atambua. Twenty-four years ago, the same thing happened," said
Petrus Nahak, an Atambua community leader.

He said the refugees and Atambua residents not only had blood
links but also cultural ties, which were severed during the 450
years colonization of East Timor by the Portuguese.

Relations resumed when East Timor "integrated" with Indonesia
on July 17, 1976.

Frans Monis, a Belu community leader, said that shared belief
systems permitted the stream of East Timor refugees to enter his
area without constraints.

"We make available our land and houses to accommodate the
refugees. It is okay if they want to resettle in Belu, but they
are also free to leave when East Timor becomes safe again," he
said.

The East Timorese fled their homes in the wake of deadly
clashes between groups supporting integration with Indonesia and
those seeking independence.

Many Atambuans have offered unused plots of land for the
refugees to farm; newcomers are growing corn, rice and tubers.

"The refugees are our brothers after all," Monis said.

The brotherhood theory between East Timorese people and
Atambuans has received credibility from a recent study by Dr.
Astrid S. Susanto Sunarto.

Astrid, a senior lecturer from the University of Indonesia's
school of sociopolitical affairs, said East Timor and Belu were
under the rule of the Wehale Kingdom before the Portuguese came.
At that time, the kingdom was the main power center.

Astrid said research conducted between 1995 and 1997 revealed
that the Wehale Kingdom was based in Malaka subdistrict in Belu.
At that time, Belu and East Timorese residents intermingled.

"During the period of Japanese occupation, residents of Loro
Suai kingdom in East Timor also sought refuge in Wehale, in what
is now the East Nusa Tenggara province," Astrid said.

The same thing happened again between 1974 and 1975 when
thousands of people streamed into the border regency of Belu to
escape the civil war.

On learning of the recent arrival of the East Timorese
refugees, Atambua catholic church leader Bishop Anton Pain Ratu
published an open letter in which he expressed sympathy and
solidarity for the new arrivals.

He called on all Catholics in Belu to pray for the East
Timorese conflict to come to end and for peace to prevail.

Refugees in Belu participated in the June 7 general election
and they will also be involved in the ballot to determine East
Timor's status scheduled for late August.

Spokesman for the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) David
Wimhurst has said that all eligible East Timorese who have sought
refuge in Belu would be able to participate in the ballot.

He said the refugees fled their homes last year because of
intimidation, terror and other forms of violence that threatened
their lives.

UNAMET is seeking the return of the refugees as soon as
security and order in East Timor is guaranteed.

Dili bishop and 1996 Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Filipe
Ximenes Belo has persistently called on the Indonesian government
to send the refugees home and guarantee their safety.

"The refugees left behind all their belongings. Living in the
refuge crammed with so many people is precarious to their
health," he said.

Florentino Sarmento, an East Timorese community leader said it
was not easy job to return the refugees at the present time, as
the security situation was unreliable.

He said the refugees and the Atambuan residents had good
traditional relations and marriage between locals and comers was
commonplace.

Many East Timorese had neglected their land in East Timor;
they had farming plots in Atambua and they felt at home there, he
said.

Many have proposed that UNAMET open a representative office in
Atambua to oversee the refugees' registration for the ballot.

Caetano Moniz, a refugee from Covalima, said he and his family
had no intention of returning to East Timor because his relatives
in Atambua had offered him a plot of land and a decent home.

"We don't want to go home and risk terror. We want to resettle
in Atambua because it is safe here and many of our relatives live
here, too."