Indonesia must beef up security in West Timor camps, UN says
Indonesia must beef up security in West Timor camps, UN says
DILI (AFP): Indonesia must beef up its security forces in West Timor to help resolve the problem of pro-Jakarta militia intimidating East Timorese refugees, the head of the UN mission said on Thursday before flying to Jakarta for talks.
"We are encouraged by the recognition of the need to inject new forces into West Timor," Sergio Vieira de Mello told journalists.
"No doubt, the numerical weakness of the TNI (Indonesian armed forces) and Polri (police) in West Timor is part of the problem."
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 110,000 East Timorese remain in Indonesian West Timor.
De Mello last met on Aug. 23 with Indonesian officials, who have proposed the refugees be given a free choice about whether to stay in Indonesia or return to East Timor.
This could not happen unless "gangs of former militia, thugs, call them as you wish" are removed from the camps," de Mello said.
"As part of the plan... they would be deploying sufficient TNI and police forces in NTT to enable this separation to finally occur," he said, referring to the Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur, to which West Timor belongs.
The UNHCR says more than 168,000 people have returned to East Timor since they were forcibly expelled in an Indonesian-backed terror campaign that followed last year's Aug. 30 vote in which East Timorese opted for independence.
Over the last 11 months aid agencies have repeatedly faced intimidation and violence from militias who remain in the West Timor refugee camps. The UNHCR has suspended operations in the camps since Aug. 22 when its members were attacked.
Joseph Yeo, a UNHCR official in Dili, told AFP on Thursday that Indonesian security forces were not doing enough to stop attacks on aid workers in West Timor.
But Yeo contended that the number of security personnel was not the issue. "It's the amount of effort they put in," he said.
The UNHCR's discussions with the Indonesian military could soon lead to a resumption of work in the West Timor camps, Yeo added.
"We were thinking that we could re-start our operations after the celebrations of the 30th. It could be next week," he said.
Although the recent security crisis brought a halt to the organized return of refugees by land, Yeo said some East Timorese have managed to return on their own.
"We have had some spontaneous returns to (the border town of) Suai the last few days," he said.
A ship is due to arrive in Dili on Saturday with an additional 160 refugees from Kupang in West Timor, Yeo said.
In Jakarta, UN officials said de Mello would meet Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Friday morning, and coordinating minister for security and politics, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono later in the day.