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.