East Timorese refugees offered incentives

East Timorese refugees offered incentives

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

The government has offered money and rice as incentives for East
Timorese refugees who want to return to their homeland
immediately in an attempt to help solve the refugee issue in East
Nusa Tenggara.

"Every refugee family who returns to East Timor under the
repatriation program will receive Rp 500,000 (US$50) and a packet
of rice," Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Yusuf Kalla
said in a meeting with East Timorese refugees in their camps in
Atambua Regency on Saturday.

Yusuf also said that both the Indonesian government and the UN
Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) would
guarantee their safety should they choose to return to East
Timor.

He, however, said the government would not press the refugees
to go back to East Timor and they were free to determine their
own future whether they would stay in Indonesia or not.

"The government won't let the refugees stay any longer in
their camps because, besides causing financial burdens to the
government, extending their stay in the region will cause social
problems with the local people," he said.

So far, around 141,000 East Timorese refugees who are still
living in temporary shelters at several locations in the province
have yet to choose whether to return to their homeland or to stay
in Indonesia.

Maj. Gen. Willem T. da Costa, chief of Udayana Military
Command supervising Bali, West and East Nusa Tenggara, said
security authorities in the province would take tight measures
against a certain East Timorese group who were believed to have
launched a campaign of intimidation to prevent the refugees from
going back home.

"We will take strict action against those who intimidate
refugees and force them to reject the government's repatriation
program," he said, adding that the group was led by Joao
Baptisda.

Willem was accompanying the minister on a field tour of
refugees camps in the province.