West Timor refugee camps must close: Indonesia

West Timor refugee camps must close: Indonesia

SINGAPORE (Agencies): Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab
said on Friday deadly militia attacks in East Timor can be
stopped by closing down massive refugee camps and his government
will ensure this is done.

Alwi said Indonesia was formulating a plan to close camps in
West Timor and would call on international agencies, including
the United Nations, to help set up a registry for the subsequent
repatriation of people wanting to return to East Timor.

"There is a problem with even registration, but now with the
determination of the Indonesian government, we should have it
done," Alwi said in reply to questions after a speech organized
by local think-tank, the Institute of Defense and Strategic
Studies.

"We will do our utmost to get the registration done, no more
militias to detract the plan."

Tension has risen in the border area between East and West
Timor.

An upsurge in militia activity and border incursions led to
the death of a Nepalese UN peacekeeper on Thursday after a
gunfight.

The dead soldier was one of four Nepalese UN troops who were
wounded in the skirmish with a group of militia northwest of the
city of Suai.

This was the second UN peacekeeper to be killed in a direct
fight with militiamen in East Timor. A New Zealander was killed
on July 24 while tracking suspected pro-Jakarta militia near the
border with Indonesian West Timor.

On Friday, several dozen former members of the Aitarak
militia, blamed for much of last year's mayhem in East Timor,
taunted staff at the office of the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees and threatened to attack, spokesman Ron Redmond said.

"Indonesian soldiers in Atambua were called and the situation
was brought under control after several tense hours," he added.

Six staff were trapped for hours as at least 50 machete-
wielding militiamen besieged the office of the International
Organization for Migration, which is organizing the return of
refugees to East Timor, said its spokesman, Jean-Philippe Chauzy.

Alwi said he was deeply concerned with the death, and believed
closing the refugee camps would stop the violence.

The UN, which has 9,000 peacekeepers in East Timor, has lost
four other lives to either disease or accidents.

More than 200,000 people out of a population of 850,000 fled
or were forced to flee East Timor to the western part of the
island by army-organized militia protesting at an overwhelming
vote in favor of Independence from Indonesia last August.

Many of the people now live in refugee camps in West Timor
that are used as cover by militiamen intent on causing havoc in
East Timor.

Alwi said he had spoken with his diplomatic counterparts in
the region and had won their backing that the way to rid the
violence was to clear the refugee camps.

"By closing down the camp, the source of all those problems --
killing, tension could be abated," he said.