East Timor: Survey Marks Start of Placement Program for Ex-Members of Falintil 11 Jan-21:57

The program to reintegrate former pro-independence Falintil fighters into civilian society has begun, with a survey sponsored by the International Organisation for Migration aiming to determine their current situations and perceived future needs.

An OIM communique sent Thursday to Lusa in Dili specified that the goal was to set up a database on all East Timorese soldiers, including their level of education, qualifications, state of health and family conditions.

Subsequent work of the Program to Support Placement of Falintil members (PARF), a World Bank-supported project, will be based on the collected data.

The communique states that at least 1050 of the nearly 1600 former guerrilla fighters should be demobilized, with the rest joining the first group of recruits for the future armed forces of East Timor.

The recruitment process is expected to begin this month. Two Portuguese military psychologists who will support the selection process arrived Thursday in Dili.

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