Jakarta – At least 500 East Timorese members of Indonesia's armed forces have resigned to return to their homeland, a report said Wednesday.

"I could not hold them back. It is their right to return to their homeland and they should not be prevented," regional military commander Major General Willem da Costa said, quoted by the Jakarta Post. The military had even encouraged them to return to East Timor rather than become refugees, said da Costa.

He said they were given allowances worth between nine million rupiah and 17 million rupiah, depending on their rank.

Da Costa denied the armed forces had intentionally let its native East Timorese members quit due to problems of loyalty. He said it was military policy to let the troops decide whether to stick with the military or to return.

East Timorese overwhelmingly voted on August 30, 1999, for independence after 24 years of often brutal Indonesian rule. Local pro-Jakarta militias, backed by the Indonesian military, unleashed a wave of killing and destruction in response.

East Timor is now under United Nations stewardship and is expected to become fully independent by the middle of next year.

Da Costa said in addition to the 500 "quite a lot" of troops had already returned to East Timor or were expected to do so in the future. The armed forces are also encouraging East Timorese refugees in Indonesian West Timor to return home, he said.

An estimated quarter of a million people fled or were forced into West Timor in the wake of the 1999 violence. Militia leaders in West Timor camps have been preventing some from returning.

Soren Jessen-Petersen, Assistant United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said Monday that 183,800 refugees had returned and an estimated 40,000 more would go home by the end of this year.

But he said differences between the United Nations and the Jakarta government were delaying the signing of an agreement on security and the UNHCR would not return permanently to West Timor without the pact. Without a regular presence in West Timor the UNHCR was not satisfied that refugees would have a free choice on whether to return, Jessen-Petersen said. The refugee agency pulled out of West Timor after three of its staff were murdered by a mob in September last year.