Waingapu – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has expressed anger over attitude of the country's citizens seeking asylum in Atambua, Belu district, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), a military officer said on Thursday.

"President Xanana gets angry because 26 people from East Timor's Bobonaro district left their home town for Atambua only to meet their relatives, not for security reasons," Col. Moeswarno Moesanif, commander of the Wirasakti military command, said when asked for a confirmation here.

The East Timorese people are still under the protection of the Belu police in Atambua since October 15 after entering the district by shortcuts.

They claimed they had been intimidated and terrorized by other residents in Bobonaro. They also faced a food shortage and lacked primary health care from the East Timorese government.

According to Moesanif, some institutions in Timor Leste (East Timor), especially the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), had carried out an investigation but found no intimidation or threats.

He added that the UNHCR had carried out interviews since last Monday to find out whether they were refugees or have to be deported to their homeland.

The Timor Leste government had guaranteed the safety of each of its citizens, so it did not make sense that they have sought for asylum, Moesanif said, adding they would be sent back to their hometowns after the UNHCR has completed its interviews.

At meeting with the commander in Kupang recently, East Timor's Ambassador to Indonesia Arlindo Marchall also said no groups in the country had made the intimidations.

"The asylum seekers went there for economic reasons, rather than for security reasons," he said.

The ambassador pointed out that the best solution was to repatriate them because the government guaranteed the safety of all its citizens.

Timor Leste was a former Indonesian province before seceding from the republic as the consequence of the pro-independence faction's victory in the UN-organized plebicite in Sept. 1999.

The East Timorese people fled to East Nusa Tenggara from their homeland to escape devastating rampages, which broke out shortly after the UN Mission in East Timor (Unamet) announced the outcome of the ballot.

More than 250,000 East Timorese had once taken refuge to the Indonesian province, but most of them had returned to East Timor under the UNHCR and Indonesian government's repatriation programs.