Last boat people leave Indonesia

GALANG, Riau: The last 486 Vietnamese boat people held in a camp on this tiny island south of Singapore, left for home yesterday in pouring rain.

The Vietnamese were put on two navy vessels for the two-day trip to Ho Chi Minh city, Antara reported.

The government plans to develop Galang island as part of a multi-island industrial zone south.

Armed Forces Commander Gen. Feisal Tanjung, and State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie, who also heads the industrial zone authority, were on hand to see the island cleared.

The boat people spent their last night on Galang in eight makeshift tents set up at the small port.

More than 120,000 Vietnamese and Cambodian boat people fleeing their home countries have been housed on Galang island since the camp was established in the 1970s. Most were resttled in third countries.