UN returns 410 refugees in 1st major repatriation
UN returns 410 refugees in 1st major repatriation
JAKARTA (Agencies): The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday helped ship 410 East Timorese home from West Timor in the first major repatriation it has carried out since three United Nations workers were killed in Atambua early in September.
The refugees boarded the IOM-chartered ship the Patricia Anne Hotung in Kupang Tuesday morning in a joint operation involving the Indonesian Military (TNI), UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) and the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).
But UNHRC said the return of the former Indonesian civil servants and soldiers and their families did not herald a full- scale return by aid workers, who left Indonesian West Timor after the Sept. 6 killings in the border town of Atambua.
"This is a one-off operation by UNHCR," spokesman Kris Janowski said as quoted by AP. "It's not a return to work in West Timor, since that return is still very, very questionable for security reasons."
A return hinges on the conclusions of a UN Security Council delegation that visited West Timor last week to assess the security situation and Indonesian efforts to disarm militias, Janowski said.
UNHCR estimates that 100,000 East Timorese refugees are still living in camps in West Timor.
Many of them have been prevented from returning home by the same militias that laid waste to much of East Timor last year after its people overwhelmingly voted for independence in a UN- sponsored ballot.
Another 170,000 East Timorese have returned to their territory, which is now under UN administration, since October last year.
More than 2,000 East Timorese soldiers and police were among those who fled west. A first group of 800 demobilized soldiers and their families returned to East Timor earlier this year.
The latest group of refugees left West Timor's provincial capital, Kupang, Tuesday and was scheduled to arrive in the eastern port of Com on Wednesday.
Negotiation
Negotiations with the Indonesian authorities for the return of the refugees to East Timor began in June, but were interrupted in September after militiamen killed three UN aid workers in West Timor.
Jake Morland from the UNHCR said the decision to go ahead with the repatriation of the former paramilitaries and their families was made last week after visit to West Timor by a UN Security Council mission.
At the end of their 22-hour journey, the refugees will undergo health checks and be taken back to their homes, mainly in the eastern tip of Timor island.
Morland said their communities had been informed of their arrival and were ready to accept them back.
"We want them to get back to their home straight away. This is not a security concern," said Morland.