East Timor deports dozens of Muslims to Indonesia

East Timor deports dozens of Muslims to Indonesia

Reuters Jakarta

Tiny East Timor has deported 61 Muslims to neighboring Indonesia after detaining nearly 300 who had been living illegally near the only mosque in the capital Dili, officials said on Tuesday.

The Muslims originated from Indonesia but consider themselves East Timorese. The issue has struck a sensitive cord in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, where some local media have described the developments as a move by predominantly Catholic East Timor against Islam.

The Muslims had been living in East Timor before it split from Indonesia during a bloody independence ballot in 1999.

"Our office in Dili has reported 61 of them have been deported," Ferry Adamhar, director for protection of Indonesians abroad at the Foreign Ministry in Jakarta, told Reuters.

"Their status is unclear. Calling them Indonesian nationals may not be correct. We are helping them because they were born as Indonesians or have parents who came from Indonesia."

East Timorese officials have evicted nearly 300 Muslims from shelters near the An-Nur mosque and detained them at an immigration facility. Those deported left Dili late on Monday night for neighboring Indonesian West Timor, witnesses said. It was unclear when the remainder would depart.

Ferry said the Muslims had been told they were living in Dili illegally because they had no identity papers. He said those deported could return to East Timor if they followed immigration rules.

East Timor, which has a Muslim prime minister and has sought to build good ties with Indonesia, considers them illegal immigrants. It argues the issue has nothing to do with religion.

"We will deport them because they do not want to follow the citizenship laws of Timor Leste (East Timor). We have given them time but they did not abide," Internal Affairs Minister Rogerio Lobato told a news conference on Monday in Dili.

"This problem is not a religious one. It is about immigration rules," said Lobato.

The evicted Muslims had built houses and schools adjacent to the mosque but none had proper East Timorese permits.

East Timor became formally independent in May 2002 after centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, 24 years of occupation by Indonesia and more than two years of UN administration.

An overwhelming vote by Timorese in August 1999 to break free of Jakarta triggered a rampage by gangs supported by elements in the Indonesian army.

The UN estimates around 1,000 people were killed in violence surrounding the vote.