Rp 2.5m offered to East Timor refugees

Rp 2.5m offered to East Timor refugees

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara: The Indonesian government offered Rp
2.5 million (US$312) on Thursday to East Timor refugees wishing
to return for good to their native country, East Timor.

The offer is part of the government's attempt to overcome the
refugee problem that has been plaguing Indonesia for the past
four years, said Budi Achmadi, the secretary to the National
Coordinating Body for the Handling of Natural Disasters and
Refugees, in Kupang.

He said some 284,400 East Timorese had fled, or been forced to
flee, to Indonesia during the 1999 post-independence ballot
rampage in Dili, East Timor.

Some 225,000 have decided to return to their homeland, while
the remaining 59,400 opted to stay in the Indonesia's East Nusa
Tenggara province, he added. -- JP