Special team verifies data on East Timorese refugees
Special team verifies data on East Timorese refugees
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The central government has dispatched a special team to verify
the exact number of East Timorese refugees currently stuck in
East Nusa Tenggara, where they are facing starvation after food
aid was discontinued on Jan. 1.
The 46-member team from the Finance and Development
Supervising Body (BPKP) appointed by Coordinating Minister for
People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, arrived in the provincial capital
of Kupang on Saturday.
The team has been tasked with finding accurate data on the
number of the refugees currently staying at numerous camps in the
regencies of Kupang, Belu, South and North Central Timor.
"We want only to ascertain the number of East Timorese people
as requested by the coordinating minister for people's welfare,"
Permadi, who leads the team, was quoted by Antara as saying on
Sunday in Belu.
He was speaking after meeting with officials of the local task
force in charge of dealing with disaster and refugee affairs at
the town's military district office.
The provincial administration says there are a total of
128,000 East Timorese being housed in refugee camps in East Nusa
Tenggara, but Australia and East Timor put the figure at between
only 60,000 and 80,000 people.
Most of the refugees are staying in Belu.
Permadi said his team would take one week to complete the job.
"There are no other tasks except to determine the accurate number
of the East Timorese refugees," he added.
However, Belu's military chief Lt. Col. Didi Sudiana said he
was pessimistic that the team would be able to obtain accurate
data in several refugee camps across the province.
"The authorities have faced difficulties in obtaining accurate
data on East Timorese residents in this region, though we had
registered the refugees on June 6 and June 7, 2001," he said as
quoted by Antara.
One of the difficulties was the fact that many of the refugees
often moved to other camps, Didi said, but added that his office
would help facilitate efforts of the team.
He said that based on the latest registration figures, there
were 168,000 refugees living at camps in Belu alone and many of
them had returned to East Timor last month.
The team is not tasked with how to deal with problems faced by
the starving refugees after the government stopped providing them
with the food aid on Jan. 1.
Many of them have begun to use violence and have intimidated
residents from surrounding villages, who have also complained
that their animals and other assets were stolen by refugees.