Ex-soldiers continue to return from Indonesia to East Timor
18 April -- Another 30 demobilized combatants from the Indonesian army returned to East Timor today in the second largest group of former military to return to the territory since last October, the United Nations refugee agency announced in Geneva.
According to Kris Janowski, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the group was among the more than 500 East Timorese to sail today from Kupang in West Timor to Dili in East Timor, bringing to over 160,000 the number of returnees since the UN repatriation programme began in the fall of 1999. Early this month, 60 demobilized soldiers repatriated without major problems, Mr. Janowski said.
On Monday, UNHCR had discussed with the Indonesian Army the agency's repeated request that former soldiers and ex-militias be separated from refugees in the camps controlled by pro-Indonesian elements, the spokesman said. He added that separation was essential before UNHCR's upcoming takeover of the direct distribution of aid in the camps.
In other news, the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) reported today that it had completed the autopsies on the 20 bodies exhumed last week in Passabe, in East Timor's Oecussi enclave in West Timor. At that site, an estimated 75 people were murdered last September during a killing spree now called the Passabe Massacre. So far, 65 bodies have been exhumed according to UNTAET.
