Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – West Timorese people have demanded the United Nations to revoke a security status imposed on the province after a mob killed three UN humanitarian workers in 2000, saying it was keeping away aid workers, tourists and foreign investors.
Head of the West Timor Care Foundation, Ferdi Tanoni said on Friday that 1,500 West Timorese signed a petition asking UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to revoke to the emergency status.
The petition was handed over to US Ambassador Ralph L. Boyce who visited East Nusa Tenggara province on Tuesday.
During the visit, Ambassador Boyce promised to discuss the petition with the UN and other related parties.
Ferdi said he hoped the petition would attract the UN's attention if it came through Washington.
"What the people of West Timor really want is seriousness from the international community," said Ferdi.
West Timor is home to thousands of East Timor refugees who were forced to flee East Timor after a UN vote. Pro-Indonesian militias crossed to West Timor as well.
The murder of an ex-militia leader who was named a suspect in the rampage in East Timor, which apparently triggered an attack on the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Atambua. A mob stormed the office and hacked to death three civilian UN refugee workers.
It prompted UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to suspend UN work in West Timor. International pressure also grew for Indonesia to disband the militias. Security has since improved, although not entirely.
Former militia members now live among legitimate East Timorese refugees, and some have joined the waves of those returning to their new home country. But the UN has not changed the emergency status, and for West Timor it has had an adverse impact on the economy.
Direct flights to and from Australia remain frozen. And the previously low number of arrivals of foreign tourists have yet to return. Although refugees are flowing back to East Timor, humanitarian aid is largely missing in West Timor.
West Timor's local government had complained to Jakarta that the UN status was hurting efforts to attract foreign investment.
The province already lost potential revenue sharing from the Timor Gap oil fields, which are now shared only between East Timor and Australia.