DATE=10/3/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=EAST TIMOR - REFUGEES (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-254603
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Officials from the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees say the Indonesian government has decided to
allow the hundreds of thousands of East Timorese refugees
that fled into neighboring West Timor to return home. As
Patricia Nunan reports, officials say the sudden reversal
of policy by Jakarta means some refugees can return home as
early as this week.
Text: Officials from the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees say the governor of West Timor (Piet Alexander
Tallo) was addressing some 10 thousand refugees when he
made the surprise announcement: East Timorese who had fled
into West Timor would be allowed to return home. U-N
officials say the crowd then burst into spontaneous
applause.
U-N officials say roughly 230 thousand of the estimated 300
thousand East Timorese who fled their homes because of
militia violence sought safety in neighboring West Timor.
They have been living in squalid conditions for weeks, with
no sanitation and little water and shelter.
The exodus from East Timor began when anti-independence
militias backed by the Indonesian military launched a
campaign of terror in East Timor last month. Hundreds
perhaps thousands of people are feared dead. The militias
were reacting to an announcement by the United Nations that
most East Timorese had voted for independence after 24
years of Indonesian rule.
An international peacekeeping mission landed in East Timor
roughly two weeks ago to help restore order to the
territory, and allow the United Nations to return to
implement the results of the UN-supervised ballot on the
territory's political status.
U-N officials say the return of the refugees from West
Timor will be a difficult task. First, the Indonesian
military may be called upon to provide security for the
refugees between camps and the airport the because of the
presence of militia groups in West Timor. The United
Nations also says the militias in West Timor could pose a
threat to the safety of refugees not leaving the in the
first wave.
Indonesian government officials say they estimate almost 60
percent of the refugees do not want to return to East
Timor. Aid officials dispute that figure, saying they
believe the majority of refugees want to return home.
(Signed)
NEB/PN/KL
03-Oct-1999 10:32 AM EDT (03-Oct-1999 1432 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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