The former chief of East Timorese pro-Jakarta militia groups is planning to return home from exile in Indonesia with some 3,000 followers, a report said.

"The precise time has yet to be determined but what is certain is that we are determined to return to East Timor in the near future," Joao da Silva Tavares was quoted by in Monday's Koran Tempo newspaper as saying.

Tavares headed the Integration Fighters' Force, an umbrella group for all the militias which terrorised independence supporters in the then-Indonesian province in 1999.

Speaking at Kupang in Indonesian West Timor, Tavares said he would be accompanied by some 3,000 of his followers currently in refugee camps.

Tavares, whose home town is Bobonaro, had said in the past he would never return. He said his decision was taken so that his followers could go home.

"If we all remain here the people will suffer even more because the government no longer gives out food and clothes aid. It will be better to return to East Timor because there we still have land and properties," he said.

Tavares said he and his followers had no "particular mission" in returning to the newly independent nation. He did not say whether he fears being put on trial if he goes back.

The militiamen, backed by military elements, waged a campaign of intimidation before East Timor's August 1999 vote to separate from Indonesia and a violent "scorched-earth" revenge campaign afterwards.

The violence left hundreds killed. More than 250,000 East Timor either fled voluntarily or were forced across the border into West Timor.

The United Nations estimates that 52,000 refugees remain in West Timor. Xanana Gusmao, president of East Timor, has promised to seek pardons for militia offenders after they have been convicted and started serving jail sentences.

The cash-strapped Indonesian government halted its assistance to the refugees as of January in an attempt to force them to decide either to go home or stay permanently in Indonesia.