Food distribution to 100,000 refugees still in camps in West Timor will continue by the Indonesian Government which announced in early March that food and other assistance will be cut off by March 31, 2000.
UNHCR headquarters in Geneva said Jakarta had agreed to give East Timorese refugees in West Timor another three months to decide whether to return home or to stay in Indonesia. "There will be a three-month transition period beginning April 1 to allow refugees to decide and take action on their future – whether to remain or return to East Timor," UNHCR said in a statement sent to AFP.
Some other reports indicated that Indonesia wants to hand over responsibility for the remaining East Timorese refugees in West Timor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), because the cost of caring for them has become too expensive. The Jakarta Post sited that East Nusa Tenggara Governor Piet A. Tallo gave notice to UNHCR senior officer Craig Sanders in Kupang to take charge of the refugees. "The Indonesian government will only assist the UNHCR in the administration and facilitation of certain procedures," Vice Governor Johanes Pake Pani told The Jakarta Post.
Sister Afra who works with JRS in the camps around Kupang said that in some camps the food aid was already cut weeks ago but in other camps food distribution still takes place. "While food aid is not cut for the moment we wonder when the distribution will take place. In theory the Indonesian government still has food to distribute to the people but in practice we are not sure when these distributions will take place. At the early stages of the exodus weekly distributions were made to the camps but as time went by distributions were made every two weeks and then once a month," Sister Afra added.
On March 31, 400 people repatriated from Kupang to Dili, however there is a slight decrease in the number of people wishing to return to East Timor. "The number of those wanting to return to East Timor is decreasing again. Some people want to wait another month to collect their salaries," Sr Afra said. Transmigration programs are also on their way as families that signed up for these programs are being called to go to the local integration sites. "Those who want local integration can choose from three sites: a site near Sulamu, Soe or Atambua, but so far we haven't seen a lot of people moving to these three locations," Sr Afra reported. In March there were about 9,500 returnees to East Timor.