Rp 2.5b provided for refugee registration

JAKARTA (JP): The government has allocated Rp 2.5 billion for the registration process of East Timorese residing in East Nusa Tenggara province, prior to the June 6 ballot to determine whether the refugees would return to their homeland or stay in Indonesian territory, officials said on Monday.

Chairman of the registration committee of East Timorese refugees in East Nusa Tenggara Amin Rianom told a discussion on repatriation and resettlement of the refugees that the committee will borrow funds from the Ministry of Labors and Transmigration.

He added that some 1,600 local volunteers are needed in the registration process. The volunteers are expected to be able to speak Indonesian and Tetun, the native language of the East Timorese.

Deputy chairman Harry Heriawan Saleh said the registration process was part of five humanitarian activities -- registration, repatriation, resettlement, camp maintenance and compensation -- to be funded by the international community.

"We are still waiting for the disbursement of six million Euro from the European Union community to be channeled through UNHCR," Harry said.

During registration, a total of 224,154 East Timorese residing in refugee camps in East Nusa Tenggara's 12 regencies would be asked to exercise their rights in the planned ballot on June 6.

Those who are eligible for the ballot should be at least 17 years old or married.

The refugees fled East Timor following violence that erupted soon after the results of a UN-sponsored referendum were announced in Aug. 1999.

A total of 32 people from foreign non-governmental organizations currently operating in the territory have been invited to take part as supervisors and several foreign countries representatives have been asked to act as international observers.

UNHCR's regional representative Raymond Hall said the upcoming ballot would be one of durable solutions taken by the Indonesian government for the refugees, but he warned that the officials should be able to convince traumatized refugees that their aspirations would remain confidential.

"I happened to interview several of the returnees (from NTT) in East Timor and they begged me to keep their story on their decision to return to East Timor confidential. For me it indicates that they are still fearful of their freedom to exercise their basic rights," Hall said, without elaboration.

Hall, however, added that the situation in East Timor had been "very encouraging and the security climate has been very positive."

The UN body has so far repatriated some 180,000 people from NTT.

Many have expressed their concerns and fears that the coming ballot would end up like the previous ballot in East Timor, with a number of people continuing to resent the result of the 1999 referendum during which almost 70 percent of the East Timorese voted for separation from Indonesia.

East Nusa Tenggara Governor Piet Alexander Tallo admitted that the sooner the ballot is held the better it would be for his provincial administration, saying the move would gradually remove the source of a lot of headaches in his province.

"My province is like poor people trying too hard to help even poorer people," he said.

He noted that the withdrawal of foreign humanitarian missions after the killing of three UN workers last September added an extra burden on the provincial administration to take care of the refugees. (emf)