Geneva – More than 119,000 East Timorese have now returned to the territory – most of them from Indonesian West Timor, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said here Tuesday. With the exception of three minor incidents since Friday, UNHCR staff had also reported an easing of conditions in some militia-controlled camps in West Timor, spokesman Paul Stromberg said.

"UNHCR staff say that the situation, the atmosphere in the camps is improving, and they are now able to move around some of the more notorious militia-controlled camps without armed escorts," Stromberg told reporters. In one incident Sunday at the Tuapukan camp, UNHCR staff arrived to show an information video on the situation in East Timor to refugees and were blocked, but not harmed, by an unarmed group, who also chased away the audience, he said.

Stromberg said UNHCR was continuing negotiations with the Indonesian authorities to reinforce security in the camps, emphasising the need for an overall improvement in the environment rather than just bodyguards for aid workers.

Repatriation convoys to East Timor will be put on hold from Thursday for four days over Christmas, and from December 31 until January 2.

Most of the 119,582 people who have returned to East Timor have done so under the repatriation programme of the UNHCR and International Organisation for Migration (IOM), launched October 8.