RIGHTS-EAST TIMOR: Worries Grow over Fate of Refugees

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6 1999 (IPS) - UN officials Wednesday urged Indonesia to provide them access to hundreds of thousands of East Timorese living in the Indonesian province of West Timor.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogata, sent a letter to the Indonesian government protesting Jakarta’s plans to register East Timorese in West Timor without international supervision.

“In the interest of the displaced population and the credibility of the return operation, UNHCR must have unhindered access to all displaced persons, whose decisions must be made on internationally confirmed expression of free choice,” Ogata wrote.

UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said that Indonesian authorities were asking the East Timorese who had taken refuge in West Timor to register before they would be returned.

On the registration forms, Eckhard said, refugees were asked whether or not they wanted to return to East Timor, stay in West Timor or be trasferred to another part of Indonesia.

UN officials are worried that the presence of pro-Indonesia militias – blamed for the violence since East Timorese voters opted for independence in an Aug. 30 ballot – have been present in, and possibly in control of, the refugee camps.

“Under the current circumstance, there is not even a minimum guarantee that the people can answer freely,” a UNHCR statement said.

Former US President Jimmy Carter, whose Atlanta-based Carter Centre monitored the August vote, said that access to the West Timor camps was critical following reports that the militias had executed refugees, held them against their will and recruited males for militia membership.

“I am deeply disturbed that many refugee camps in parts of Indonesia are effectively under the control of the armed East Timorese militias, who, in some instances, are being actively supported by the Indonesian military and police,” Carter said.

Carter added that, after some three weeks in the camps, the refugees deserved to return home if they so chose.

“The government of Indonesia must ensure that all Timorese residents or refugees, no matter where they are located in Indonesia, are protected by the police and local government,” he said.

Indonesian officials contended that some 230,000 East Timorese had been in camps in Kupang, Atambua and other parts of West Timor since last month’s violence in East Timor.

Although Jakarta claimed that the refugees wanted Indonesia’s protection from the violence, Indonesian officials agreed on Sunday to allow quick repatriation of the refugees and to grant UNHCR and the Red Cross access to the camps.

UNHCR said it expected to airlift refugees back to East Timor “within days” – but so far, there were no signs that the agency would be given full access to see the refugees.

Xanana Gusmao, the leader of the East Timorese independence movement, told reporters here last week that the refugees were being held in “concentration camps” in terrible conditions, and must be returned immediately.

“They are living in gfear in very poor conditions of health and security,” Gusmao said.

Officials here wondered why Indonesia was holding the refugees despite clear signals that many thousands of East Timorese wanted to return home. The Carter Centre was concerned that Indonesia intended to resettle the refugees to other parts of Indonesia, including the island of Sulawesi, as well as West Timor.

With the Australian-led International Force for East Timor, or Interfet, now in control of much of the island state, UN and other officials also are concerned that many Timorese towns have been found to be empty of people.

In Liquica, only between 15,000 and 20,000 people – out of an original population of some 50,000 – are believed to be living in nearby areas, UNHCR said. Most of the population there have been living off wild fruit in nearby hills since mid-September, the agency added.

A UNHCR assessment team also found the villages of Luidapar and Maubere “deserted,” with the few remaining people reporting that the inhabitants of the towns have been moved to the West Timorese city of Atambua.

On Wednesday, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the Nobel laureate and senior Catholic cleric in East Timor, returned to the capital, Dili, where he urged East Timorese to come back to their homes from hiding places in the hills and mountains.

A shooting incident, in which Interfet officers shot and killed two militia members near the town of Suai on Wednesday, underscored the dangers that persisted, particularly in the western parts of East Timor.