Xanana visit to speed up repatriation

Xanana visit to speed up repatriation

ATAMBUA, East Nusa Tenggara: The visit next week by East Timorese political leader Xanana Gusmao to the East Nusa Tenggara provincial capital of Kupang is expected to speed up the repatriation of East Timorese refugees, a local legislator says.

Blasius J. Manek, chairman of the provincial legislative council, said that representatives of the thousands of refugees in West Timor would meet Xanana to discuss their future on Monday.

"They (Xanana and the refugees) will have the chance to have a heart-to-heart talk. This, I am sure, will accelerate the repatriation process," Blasius said.

Blasius has frequently met with refugee leaders in various refugee camps scattered over several regencies and tried to persuade them to take part in the meeting with Xanana.

The East Timorese fled, or were forced to flee, their homeland in the wake of the violence that flared following the UN- sanctioned 1999 referendum that gave the territory independence.

A refugee in Belu regency, Pedro Ximenes, said he hoped Xanana would say what the East Timorese and Indonesian authorities intended to do with the refugees after the UNHCR stopped its relief aid. --Antara