Refugees told to leave state buildings by July

M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Ambon, Maluku

At least 5,460 families of refugees who fled sectarian fighting in the Maluku islands have been given until July to vacate shops and government facilities they have been camping in since 1999.

"The refugees must leave these camps in the next two months at the latest," Deputy Maluku Governor M. Abdullah Latuconsina said in Ambon on Wednesday after visiting the camps.

The refugees are staying at shop houses in Batumerah, the athlete dormitory in Karangpanjang, the Waihaong People's Entertainment Park and several government buildings.

They were among some 36,828 families who fled the religious fighting and are now in camps throughout the province.

Latuconsina said the July deadline was only effective for 5,469 families of refugees in downtown Ambon, who were staying in public facilities.

He said his administration could not set a deadline for other refugees to leave their camps because of a lack of funds to build them houses.

The Maluku government has allocated Rp 400 billion (US$45.6 million) to send home all the refugees but the money was only enough to build some 10,000 houses for them, Latuconsina said.

"We need more funds from the central government to build many more houses," he said.

Refugees that still had houses were being offered Rp 10 million a family to return to their villages in order to resolve this problem.

Some 6,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands fled their homes when Muslims and Christians started in fighting in January 1999.

Many refugees' homes were destroyed or burned down during the conflict.

Most of the fighting ended in February, 2002, after leaders from both sides signed a government-brokered peace pact, known as the Malino II Agreement.