Only 666 of the 1,250 East Timorese refugees Indonesian authorities said wanted to return to their homeland last month have been able to do so, UN officials said on Tuesday.

Results of the registration drive undertaken by authorities in Indonesian West Timor last month indicated that 1,250 East Timorese refugees above the age of 17 wanted to be repatriated, said Bernard Kerblatt, the representative of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Dili.

However, as only about half the refugees have so far been able to return to East Timor, the UNHCR officials believe that the others may have been victims of reprisals by the militias opposed to the territory's independence who still control the refugee camps in West Timor.