Security concerns prompt UN refugee agency to close office
in West Timor town
21 July -- Following a series of security incidents in West Timor over the past few weeks, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has shut down its office in the border town of Betun and withdrawn its three international staff there, a spokesman for the agency said today in Geneva.
Speaking to the press at the agency's headquarters, UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said that the closure of the sub-office on 19 July was prompted by security incidents instigated by pro-Indonesian elements opposing repatriation of East Timorese refugees. In the latest incident a week ago, former East Timorese militias beat up a refugee and stole the belongings of some returnees at a border checkpoint outside Betun as 70 Indonesian soldiers stood by, the spokesman said.
Earlier last week, ex-militias stoned the UNHCR office in Betun, injuring a staff member and damaging its premises and vehicles. The incidents were among several that pushed UNHCR to call off a programme to register an estimated 125,000 East Timorese in West Timor.
"Registration is not only important in determining the number of refugees, but also essential in continuing assistance in the camps," the spokesman said.
UNHCR addressed the security problems in West Timor during a two-day meeting in Denpasar earlier this week with representatives of UN and other relief organizations. The Geneva-based Director of UNHCR's Asia bureau, François Fouinat, attended that meeting and later travelled to Jakarta, Indonesia, to meet with Indonesian officials and diplomatic representatives to discuss UNHCR's concerns in West Timor and proposals to resolve the continuing problems there.
"These [problems] centre on the maintenance of law and order in the camps, separation of ex-militias, former soldiers and police from refugees, and clarification of the status of East Timorese in the Indonesian army and civil service," Mr. Redmond said.
