Former East Timor refugees unable to vote

Former East Timor refugees unable to vote

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara

About half of the 28,000 former East Timor refugees in East
Nusa Tenggara that are old enough to vote will not be able to
cast their ballot in next year's general election as their
citizenships have not been decided yet, local officials said on
Wednesday.

The assistant at the office for administrative affairs at the
provincial secretariat of East Nusa Tenggara, Djidon de Haan,
said the former refugees' status should be decided by the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which handles them.

"The Indonesian government cannot decide on the citizenship of
these refugees. That will be the decision of the UNHCR," he told
The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

So far, the UNHCR has not decided whether the thousands of
former refugees, who have settled in East Nusa Tenggara, are
still Indonesians or East Timorese, he said.

"That's why it's unlikely that the refugees will be able to
vote in the 2004 general election," he added.

Over 200,000 East Timorese fled the violence after the former
Indonesian province voted overwhelmingly for independence in a
United Nations-backed referendum in 1999.

Many were forcibly deported to the Indonesian side of Timor,
known as West Timor. But others were families of pro-Jakarta
militias, who, with the backing of the Indonesian Military (TNI),
went on a violent rampage in East Timor. Some of these families
fear for their safety if they return.

Of the 28,000 remaining East Timorese in West Timor, about
15,000 now live in the regency of Belu. The other 13,000 have
settled in the regencies of Kupang, North Central East Timor and
South Central East Timor.

A spokesman for the provincial secretary, Johanis Kosapilawan,
said the former refugees had been registered as temporary
residents in Indonesia.