Four Timorese families 'repatriated' to Lisbon

Four Timorese families 'repatriated' to Lisbon

JAKARTA (JP): While dozens of East Timorese have resorted to
scaling embassy walls to attain political asylum in Portugal, 29
more left with little fanfare on Wednesday under a joint
repatriation program between Indonesia and Portugal.

The four families have taken advantage of a 15-year-old
program which allows former East Timorese employees of the
Portuguese colonial administration to return to Portugal.

The Indonesian foreign ministry's director of information
Ghaffar Fadyl, and the head of the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) in Indonesia, Henry Fournier, separately
confirmed to The Jakarta Post that the group, made up of elderly
and young Timorese, left on Wednesday night.

"This is part of the repatriation program," Ghaffar said.

Both men said that the program was set up for former East
Timorese, and their dependents, who worked as civil servants in
East Timor during the Portuguese colonial period. Under the
program they are entitled to passage to Portugal and Portuguese
citizenship.

East Timor was a Portuguese colony until it became part of
Indonesia in 1976.

The United Nations still recognizes Lisbon as the
administrating power there.

A government official told the Post that 205 families
comprised of 1,127 persons have departed under the program since
it was established in 1981.

He said there are now only about 20 families, or about 100
persons, still waiting to depart.

"They will leave in stages," the foreign ministry official
said, adding that the program is expected to be completed this
April.

The repatriation is being organized by the Indonesian Red
Cross with the help of International Red Cross, which assisted
with the travel documents.

The orderly departure of the 29 on Wednesday is in stark
comparison to the 23 young East Timorese who forced their way
into four Jakarta embassies in January to demand asylum. They
eventually won passage to Portugal.

The Indonesian foreign ministry has always maintained that
East Timorese are free to leave whenever they want, without
having to force their way into embassies. (mds)