RI sets time frame for refugee camp closure

RI sets time frame for refugee camp closure

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab said on
Monday that East Timorese refugee camps in West Timor would be
closed within three to six months.

However, he called on the international community to help
resettle the some 100,000 people who have been living in the
camps since last year.

"The Indonesian government has decided to set up a task force
consisting of officials from a number of ministries and
representatives of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and police to
carry out 'a comprehensive plan of action' that will resolve the
refugee problem once and for all," Alwi said after a closed-door
meeting discussing the issue at the foreign ministry.

"The timetable is around three to six months, but this depends
very much on many aspects," he said.

Present at the meeting were Minister of Defense Juwono
Sudarsono, Minister of Settlement and Territorial Development
Erna Witoelar, chief of Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali,
East and West Nusa Tenggara and West Timor Maj. Gen. Kiki
Syahnakri and former foreign minister Ali Alatas.

Alwi said the success of the program "depended on many
aspects, including the readiness of both UNTAET ... to provide
security and provisions needed for the return of the refugees and
the refugees themselves".

The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) is
charged with supervising East Timor's transition to full
independence after the territory's vote for independence from
Indonesia last year.

Alwi appealed to the international community and donor
countries to provide financial assistance for the program.

"There are obstacles to assistance given to Indonesia. Maybe
because of the perception of the international community that
Indonesia is responsible for the slow and sluggish return of
those who want to return to East Timor," he said.

"Actually that is not the case."

He said Indonesia was determined to get the militias, who have
been blamed for intimidating and obstructing the refugee
repatriation program, out of the camps.

"This is part of the problem. The international community has
accused the TNI of being to blame for this kind of intimidation
but there are actually other factors," he said.

A gang of militiamen has been accused of killing a New Zealand
member of the UN peacekeeping force in East Timor, Pvt. Leonard
William Manning, in the rugged town of Fato Mean, just two
kilometers away from the Indonesian border in East Nusa Tenggara,
on July 24, 2000.

Alwi said the other factors included political differences
between prointegration and proindependence East Timorese and
bitterness over the result of last year's ballot in which East
Timorese voted overwhelmingly to break away from Indonesia.

Some 170,000 East Timorese have returned home since they fled
last year's violence. (byg)