No rice for Timorese refugees

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.