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Pro-Indonesia East Timorese to discuss Wetar Island move

Jawa Pos' web site, Surabaya, in Indonesian 23 Jul 00

Excerpts from report by Indonesian newspaper 'Jawa Pos' web site on 23rd July

Kupang: An information campaign on the relocation programme for East Timorese refugees from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) to Wetar Island is to be conducted in cooperation with the Union of Timor Warriors (UNTAS), the "Womintra Consultants" non-government organization and the NTT provincial government.

UNTAS spokesperson Florencio Mario Vieira in Kupang, Sunday [23rd July], said that East Timorese refugees in the camps were still free to decide whether they wished to move to a new settlement on Wetar Island.

Wetar Island is part of the southern-most group of islands, West Southeast Maluku District, in Maluku Province.

"The principle remains the same, that is that no-one should be forced to take part in the relocation or continue living in the refugee camps," the Carnegie Mellon University graduate said.

He said that the information exercise on the relocation programme was to explain the real situation on life on Wetar...

"The area has the potential for exploitation to meet the necessities of life. The pro-integrationist East Timorese remain committed to the struggle for East Timor's future, but daily necessities cannot be disregarded either. Actually they are the chief resource [for the struggle]," he said.

The East Timorese refugees participating in the relocation programme are integration supporters who refuse to return to East Timor because the process by which their homeland reached independence was anti-democratic and full of fraud committed by UNAMET through the 1999 referendum...

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