Resettlement project to commence in West Sumba
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in cooperation with the government, will resettle an estimated 30,000 East Timorese refugees who have decided to stay in Indonesia and not return home.
UNHCR officials said that they had been working with the Coordinating Ministry for Peoples' Welfare and the Ministry of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure for this purpose.
"We will initiate a pilot project early this year in West Sumba where the local community is ready to accept the refugees to stay in the regency," said Fernando Protti-Alvarado, the assistant regional representative, at a news briefing here on Wednesday.
Basically, the UNHCR and the government have agreed that both sides would resettle the refugees in any region where local communities were ready to accept them.
"This is time consuming, but it will avoid any potential conflict in the future," Protti-Alvarado added.
Also speaking at the news briefing were UNHCR Regional Representative Robert P. Ashe and his assistant Choosin Ngaotheppitak.
Protti-Alvarado explained that his office had outlined a resettlement scheme that would be disseminated to regions who expressed a willingness to accommodate the refugees.
The resettlement scheme offers aid packages for refugees who are willing to move to new resettlement areas. It includes domestic needs or food assistance for up to nine months.
UNHCR will work closely with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which will give financial assistance to host communities where the refugees settle.
The amount of funds, he said, would depend on the number of families relocating to the area.
Earlier reports said that the government had prepared a number of resettlement sites for refugees in the East Sumba, West Sumba and Ngada regencies, all in the East Nusa Tenggara province, while South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan have offered resettlement sites under the local transmigration scheme.
The refugees have welcomed the move, but demanded that the government provide support facilities, such as schools and health centers at the resettlement sites.
Meanwhile, Ashe disclosed that 4,323 East Timorese children had become separated from their parents following the bloody rampage in Dili in 1999 after a UN-sanctioned referendum resulted in East Timor's cessation from Indonesia.
The ensuing violence killed hundreds of civilians, mostly independence supporters, and destroyed almost 80 percent of the infrastructure in the former Portuguese colony, which achieved full independence on May 20, 2002.
Ashe added that almost half the number of separated children were in East Timor while their parents may have fled to West Timor.
He added that a total of 3,504 cases of separated children had been closed for several reasons. At least 2,131 children were reunited with their families while the 1,373 other cases were closed because the children had turned 18, got married or had died.
Although a large number of cases have been closed, there are still 819 separated children in various cities throughout the country.
"Our agenda is to ensure that contact is reestablished between children and their parents," Ashe said.