Jakarta – Economic factors and not intimidation are now the main reason why many East Timorese refugees are reluctant to go home from Indonesia, the UN refugee agency said Monday.

With less than four months to go before East Timor attains full independence, an estimated 60,000-75,000 of them are still in Indonesian West Timor.

Raymond Hall, regional representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said former pro-Jakarta militia leaders were still threatening some people who want to return. He said he had been told two weeks ago of death threats against some refugees.

Many others had voted against independence from Indonesia in East Timor's August 1999 ballot and feared reprisals if they return, even though there had not been a single case of retaliation against returnees.

But economic reasons were now more important than fear, Hall told a press conference. He said some 50,000 of the refugees had some economic rights in Indonesia – a civil service pension, severance pay owing from the army or even an upcoming harvest. "A year ago it was intimidation and misinformation ... now some of the economic reasons are the most important [reasons not to return]," Hall said.

Aid bodies and international donors were trying to make compensation arrangements to encourage people to return.

After the independence vote, the pro-Jakarta militias embarked on an orgy of violence in East Timor. As international peacekeeping troops began arriving, the militias either led or forced an estimated 250,000-270,000 people across the border into West Timor. Some 193,000 of these have since returned.

In a report released last Friday the United Nations in New York said between 1,000 and 2,000 children taken from East Timor are still being held in different parts of Indonesia. Hall said many of these are probably in West Timor but the UNHCR was anxious to identify groups of children held in other parts of Indonesia. It would then contact parents in East Timor to find out if the children were being held in Indonesia against their wishes.

In a highly publicised case last year nine East Timorese children were returned to the territory from Indonesia at their parents' request even though some of the children were reluctant to leave. "The decision must be that of their parents ... we are very, very concerned to identify these children," Hall said.