East Timorese refugees face starvation

East Timorese refugees face starvation

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

Around 2,000 East Timorese refugees living in numerous camps
in Noelbaki and Tuapukan regencies, East Nusa Tenggara, are
facing starvation as they have received no food aid from the
provincial government over the last four months.

Marsel Nahak, 36, an East Timorese refugee in Noelbaki, called
on the provincial government to resume the distribution of food
aid to more than 1,870 refugees in the regency as they were
unable to meet their daily food requirements.

"We have received no food since early June. We had taken this
problem to the local administration to sort out but no response
has yet been given," he said on Saturday.

Abrao Sarmento Soares, 39, coordinator of refugees in
Noelbaki, concurred and said he had reported to governor Piet A.
Tallo on several occasions about the poor situation at the
refugee camps in the regency but, so far, no satisfying response
had been given.

The government has provided Rp 1,500 and 400 grams of rice per
person as daily food aid to the East Timorese refugees who are
still staying in the country.

The refugees were the remainder of around 290,000 East
Timorese who crossed to the province following the 1999 East
Timor election, which voted for East Timor's independence. The
majority of them returned to their homeland while some want to
stay in Indonesia. The U.S. government recently pledged President
Megawati Soekarnoputri US$2 million in aid for the East Timorese
refugees who had chosen to remain in Indonesia.

East Nusa Tenggara's provincial administration recently
returned to central government Rp 80 billion allocated for the
East Timorese refugees because it was no longer needed.

According to The Jakarta Post's monitoring in the field, the
refugees have experienced poor conditions because, besides food
shortages, they no longer receive any health care or education
program.

Simon Seran, another refugee, said several camps built to
provide health facilities and an education program for refugees
were no longer functioning for reasons that were so far unclear
to them.

"The health clinic established near the refugee camps no
longer functions and refugees who are in need of medical aid have
to take a six-kilometer trip to reach a public health center.

"The health clinic has ceased because its medical staff no
longer visit the refugee camps and the education program for
school-age refugees has stopped," he said.

Meanwhile, J.B. Kosapilawan, spokesman for the provincial
administration, said the local government would take concrete
action to help repair the poor conditions of the refugees.

He said the provincial government would immediately resume the
distribution of food aid to the refugees to help solve the food
crisis while the education and health program would be
coordinated with the related ministry offices.