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."