West Timorese people demand UN to lift emergency status
West Timorese people demand UN to lift emergency status
Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara
West Timorese people have demanded the United Nations to revoke a
security status imposed on the province after a mob killed three
UN humanitarian workers in 2000, saying it was keeping away aid
workers, tourists and foreign investors.
Head of the West Timor Care Foundation, Ferdi Tanoni said on
Friday that 1,500 West Timorese signed a petition asking UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan to revoke to the emergency status.
The petition was handed over to U.S. Ambassador Ralph L. Boyce
who visited East Nusa Tenggara province on Tuesday.
During the visit, Ambassador Boyce promised to discuss the
petition with the UN and other related parties.
Ferdi said he hoped the petition would attract the UN's
attention if it came through Washington.
"What the people of West Timor really want is seriousness from
the international community," said Ferdi.
West Timor is home to thousands of East Timor refugees who
were forced to flee East Timor after a UN vote. Pro-Indonesian
militias crossed to West Timor as well.
The murder of an ex-militia leader who was named a suspect in
the rampage in East Timor, which apparently triggered an attack
on the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in
Atambua. A mob stormed the office and hacked to death three
civilian UN refugee workers.
It prompted UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to suspend UN work
in West Timor. International pressure also grew for Indonesia to
disband the militias.
Security has since improved, although not entirely.
Former militia members now live among legitimate East Timorese
refugees, and some have joined the waves of those returning to
their new home country.
But the UN has not changed the emergency status, and for
West Timor it has had an adverse impact on the economy.
Direct flights to and from Australia remain frozen. And the
previously low number of arrivals of foreign tourists have yet to
return.
Although refugees are flowing back to East Timor, humanitarian
aid is largely missing in West Timor.
West Timor's local government had complained to Jakarta that
the UN status was hurting efforts to attract foreign investment.
The province already lost potential revenue sharing from the
Timor Gap oil fields, which are now shared only between East
Timor and Australia.