| Subject: Refugee returns
to East Timor top 100,000--UNHCR Refugee
returns to East Timor top 100,000--UNHCR
GENEVA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - More than 100,000 refugees have
now returned to East Timor, but militiamen continue to hamper repatriation despite a deal
signed this week between Indonesia and U.N. forces, the U.N. refugee agency said on
Thursday.
In a statement, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
said it hoped the setting up of a joint border commission agreed on Monday would ``produce
a breakthrough in efforts to gain unimpeded access to the camps and halt harassment of
returnees.''
The agreement over joint patrols near the border between
East and West Timor aims to curb pro-Jakarta militias accused of intimidating many of the
estimated 250,000 refugees who fled violence in East Timor after the independence vote on
August 30.
``Three days after the setting up of the commission, there
has been no noticeable improvement in the security situation, at least in the Kupang
area,'' the Geneva-based UNHCR said.
For the first time, UNHCR officials entered Naibonat camp
on the outskirts of the West Timor capital of Kupang on Thursday -- accompanied by police
and army troops -- to begin repatriation of some 2,000 Timorese, according to the
statement.
``The team faced the usual taunts from militias and managed
only to extricate four returnees,'' it said, adding that the team planned to return to
Naibonat on Friday.
Some 2,600 refugees crossed from the West Timor border town
of Betun into Suai, East Timor on Thursday, bringing to more than 100,800 the number of
people who have gone home since October either spontaneously or under a programme run by
the UNHCR and International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Repatriations have been by land, sea and air from West
Timor, from other parts of Indonesia and from Australia.
10:48 11-25-99
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