Jakarta – About 40,000 refugees of the strife-torn North Maluku have returned to their homes in the regencies of Halmahera, Morotai, Bacan and other islands after living for nearly two years in refugee camps.

North Maluku Governor Muhyi Effendie said on Thursday that the refugees – both Muslims and Christians – decided to go home on their own initiative, Antara reported.

"Many returned on their own while others were facilitated by the police, military and local administrations," Muhyi said after attending a meeting with residents of four subdistricts in North Maluku on Thursday.

He said that a conducive security situation in the province made it possible for the refugees to return to their homeland.

Those who have returned include people of the restive subdistricts of Ibu and Loloda and some 300 East Javanese transmigrant refugees who eventually returned to the transmigration site in Kao-Halmahera subdistrict.

Newly established North Maluku province has seen the worst communal conflicts, which first erupted in the Ambon capital of Maluku on Janury 19, 1999. The two years of violence in the Maluku islands has claimed at least 8,000 lives and forced 130,000 others to flee their homes.