18 July -- Amid ongoing security problems in camps for East Timorese refugees in West Timor, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today began a two-day meeting with UN agencies and non-governmental organizations to review their assistance activities in the area.

Speaking to the press in Geneva, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said the meeting followed the cancellation last week of a programme to register the remaining East Timorese refugees in West Timor because of continuing harassment and intimidation of aid staff and refugees by pro-Indonesian ex-militias.

Normal assistance activities are continuing in the meantime, except in the Kupang camps, which house some 25,000 refugees, UNHCR said. "Because of continuing tensions there, only essential staff are making brief visits to these camps, where food distribution has been taking place since yesterday," the spokesman said, noting that there had been a slight increase in the number of returns, with 800 refugees going back to East Timor last week and 200 today.

Meanwhile in Dili, the Transitional Government's new Cabinet held its first meeting yesterday, representing "the first time in history that East Timorese leaders have participated as equal partners in the governing of their territory," according to the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). The cabinet, which consists of four East Timorese and four international staff, was sworn in at UNTAET Headquarters last Saturday.

"We can from now on provide to the Timorese population as well as to our international partners one single point of entry - one single focal point in each of the main sectors of public activity -- to the government of East Timor," UNTAET chief Sergio Vieira de Mello said after the ceremony.

Announcement of the Deputy cabinet members will be made as soon as the necessary consultations are completed, UNTAET said.

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