East Nusa Tenggara to resettle 6,500 refugees

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

The East Nusa Tenggara administration will resettle some 6,500 refugees who have taken refugee in the province for the last two years following the 1999 post-ballot rioting in East Timor.

Piet Djami Rebo, head of the provincial resettlement and infrastructure office, told The Jakarta Post in Kupang on Monday that the refugees who migrated to East Timor during the 1970s have decided to stay in Indonesia and to join the resettlement program in the province.

To this end, "the provincial administration has built 3,100 housing units at a cost of Rp 64 billion over the 2000 and 2001 fiscal year in five regencies in the province," he said.

The five regencies, where resettlement areas have been made available, are Kupang, Northern Central Timor, Southern Central Timor, Belu and East Sumba. The remainder, totaling about 3,400 units, will be completed next year.

In order to prevent conflicts with native dwellers from occurring, the refugee homes will be located in local settlements in order to encourage smooth assimilation, according to Djami Rebo.

"Of the total housing units, half are earmarked for local people and the other half for the East Timorese," he added, concluding that some of the refugees would start occupying the resettlement areas early next year.