JP/5/leste
58 East Timorese seek protection in NTT
Yemris Fointuna The Jakarta Post Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara
As many as 48 East Timorese citizens sneaked into East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province seeking protection from the Indonesia government, claiming they were victims of intimidation, police said on Friday.
Twenty-six of them were accommodated at Belu Police Station, while the remaining 22 are staying at camps along with other East Timorese refugees.
Belu Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Agus Nugroho said the 48 East Timorese were from Balibo subdistrict, Bobonaro district, East Timor, and claimed to have been "terrorized and intimidated" by their East Timorese neighbors.
They managed to sneak into East Nusa Tenggara, despite tight border security, he added.
Agus said the 48 were among some 250,000 East Timorese who had fled the carnage at the hands of militia in their homeland in 1999 after it voted to break away from Indonesia in an independence vote.
"They had returned home to Timor Leste (East Timor) under the repatriation program in 2001 after taking refuge in Atambua, Belu regency," he said, adding that some of the 48 refugees were women and children.
Agus said the escape of these East Timorese citizens would affect the smooth repatriation of thousands of refugees still languishing at the camps across East Nusa Tenggara.
The Indonesian government is waiting for a response from the East Timor administration in order to deport its 48 citizens, he said.
"We will not go home because we don't want to be bullied by the East Timorese people who do not want us to live there," said Emersia da Cruz, one of the 48 refugees.
Kupang's Wirasakti military commander Col. Moeswarno Moesanip confirmed the presence of the 48 East Timorese citizens who were seeking protection in Atambua.
East Timor's economic recession has also forced them to return to Indonesia to escape destitution in the neighboring country, he said.
Moesanip said that an exodus of more East Timorese people would hit East Nusa Tenggara and other Indonesian provinces, if the Xanana Gusmao government failed to resolve economic difficulties confronting its citizens.