Repatriation of East Timor refugees observed

Repatriation of East Timor refugees observed

JAKARTA (JP): Visiting British Deputy Foreign Minister John
Battle called on the government here on Monday to speed up the
repatriation of some 130,000 East Timorese refugees in West Timor
to the former Indonesian province.

"The pace needs to be stepped up," Battle told a small group
of journalists at the residence of British Ambassador to Jakarta,
Richard Gozney, in Central Jakarta.

He said the process of repatriating the refugees to East Timor
should be accelerated due to the fast-approaching rainy season.

"I just think that that is not a way for people to live ...
people need to be able to go home ... and the preconditions for
that is no intimidation, no violence and (the militias) have to
pull out and disarm," he added.

The statement came as Coordinating Minister for Political,
Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said earlier
in the day that the police have collected somewhere between 41
and 91 percent of weapons held by pro-integration militiamen in
West Timor.

Jakarta has been under international pressure to disarm the
militias after the killing of three UN relief workers by militia
mobs in the West Timorese border town of Atambua on Sept. 6.

The disarmament and disbandment of the militia was a key
demand, and both the World Bank and the United States had warned
Indonesia that it risked jeopardizing foreign financial
assistance if it failed to comply.

Indonesia has invited a delegation from the Security Council
to West Timor on Nov. 13 to assess the implementation of its
demands.

The government had said earlier that it would re-register
the refugees in early November.

The re-registration process would enable the refugees "to
choose freely whether to return back to East Timor or stay in
Indonesia," Susilo was quoted by AFP said.

Those who choose to stay would be placed in resettlement
programs in either West Timor, Sumba island or Wetar island, off
the northeastern tip of East Timor.

Last year's violence in East Timor forced some 250,000 people
to flee into West Timor in the wake of the territory's
overwhelming vote to split from Indonesia in the UN-held autonomy
ballot on Aug. 30.

The militias also fled to West Timor following the deployment
of international peacekeeping forces in East Timor in September.
(byg)