No rice for Timorese refugees

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

Hopes for East Timorese refugees to escape starvation went up in smoke in just 24 hours on Thursday as the East Nusa Tenggara administration announced it did not have enough rice for them.

The news came after a Wednesday statement by the provincial administration's spokesman Johanis B. Kosapilawan, who said that the local government had agreed to distribute rice to the refugees based on need.

However, on Thursday, Husein Pancratius, head of the provincial social affairs office, said the rice stocks that he had were too limited to be distributed to the refugees.

"There are only 26 tons of rice in our warehouses but we won't release it, because we are anticipating some extraordinary circumstances or natural disasters that may hit local people (East Nusa Tenggara-born)," he told The Jakarta Post.

There are between 20,000 and 50,000 East Timorese refugees remaining in the province and famine is looming in their camps since the rice assistance was halted on Dec. 31 last year to speed up the repatriation program which has been ongoing since late 1999.

Earlier, the Coordinating Minister for Peoples' Welfare Jusuf Kalla asked the head of the provincial social affairs office in an official letter to distribute the rice to the refugees.

Husein said that the letter did not explain clearly who should receive the rice.

"I admit that the letter mentioned that the rice should be given selectively, but it did not point out how to do that. This is where the difficulties came in for my officers in the field," he explained.

Husein suggested that the central government provide the rice for the humanitarian program.

Demands for rice and other aid have been aired many times of late by the refugees. Last week, they demanded the government to disburse the Rp 53 billion in aid money from Japan which is still being held in Jakarta.