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