UN to return 16 children to E. Timor

UN to return 16 children to E. Timor

Agence France-Presse, Jakarta

A group of sixteen East Timorese children who were separated from
their parents in the chaos following the August 1999 independence
vote will be returned to their parents Friday, a UN refugee
agency official said.

The 16 are currently in orphanages in Indonesia's South
Kalimantan, Central Java and West Timor districts.

It will be the second UN-organized repatriation of such
children following the return of eight in September 2001, the
official from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
said Thursday.

"Most of my staff are still working in the field and barring
any last minute changes, 16 children will be reunited with their
parents in East Timor," the official, who declined to be
identified, told AFP.

She said none of the 16 came from the controversial Hati
(Heart) Foundation, a Java-based group whose leader, Octavio
Soares, took some 150 East Timorese children from refugee camps
in Indonesian West Timor and placed them in Indonesian
orphanages.

Soares, a pro-Jakarta East Timorese, said he obtained the
parents' consent and denied his foundation had done anything
illegal.

"I am only responsible to the parents who have trusted their
children to my care," he told AFP.

Some commentators have said the apparent aim of giving the
children an Indonesian education is to nurture support for a
return of Indonesian rule over East Timor.

The country was invaded by Jakarta in 1975, came under United
Nations control in October 1999 and became independent on May 20.

More than 250,000 East Timorese either fled voluntarily or
were forced across the border into West Timor after pro-Jakarta
militia -- backed by military elements -- waged a revenge
campaign after the vote to separate from Indonesia.

In a January report the United Nations said that between 1,200
and 2,000 children had been kidnapped in East Timor and were
being held in different parts of Indonesia.