Rp 2.5b provided for refugee registration

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)