Mon, 20 Oct 2003

Twenty-six East Timorese citizens have requested political asylum from the Indonesian government due to fear of intimidation back home, an Indonesian official has said.

However, the Indonesian government initially turned down the request on the grounds that the 26 East Timorese previously refused to become Indonesian citizens, said Col. Moeswarno Moesanip, the chief of Wirasakti Military Resort overseeing East Timor Province (NTT).

"The 26 East Timorese took refuge in Indonesia after the 1999 East Timor mayhem, and they were given a chance to obtain Indonesian citizenship.

"However, instead of doing that, they returned later on to their hometown and became citizens of East Timor," Moeswarno told The Jakarta Post.

The 26, who are now being accommodated at Belu police station in NTT, were part of a group of 48 East Timorese citizens who recently crossed into NTT after claiming to be victims of intimidation in East Timor.

The remaining 22 East Timorese citizens, who are now living in several refugee camps in Belu regency here, have yet to request political asylum from the Indonesian government.

The 48, who came from Bobonaro district, East Timor, were among some 250,000 East Timorese who fled the mayhem in East Timor in 1999, when angry pro-Indonesian militias, allegedly backed by elements of the Indonesian Military, burned down the East Timor capital of Dili after the majority of the East Timorese voted to break away from Indonesia.- JP