Soe, Indonesia – Around 70 per cent of the tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees languishing in squalid camps in Indonesia want to return home, an Indonesian military official said on Wednesday.

Colonel Budi Hariyanto, military chief of Indonesia's West Timor province, told journalists touring refugee camps there that most will return to East Timor following a government registration beginning next month. "Only about 30 per cent, mainly ex-militiamen and their families, will want to stay in Indonesia," Hariyanto said.

Some of the 5,000-plus refugees staying in the town of Soe, outside the provincial capital of Kupang, told reporters that reports of intimidation by the militias and local authorities to remain in Indonesia were exaggerated.

"There is no intimidation or pressure from the military or local authorities for us to stay here," said refugee Antonio Gonzales, an ex-militiaman. "Most of us are staying here because of the security situation in East Timor. " He claimed that three ex-militiamen were detained by UN peacekeepers after they returned to East Timor recently, which prompted other refugees to refuse to go back.