Atambua – The Belu district government said it was treating the 26 East Timorese seeking asylum in Atambua as foreign nationals.

"We will never treat them as if they are former East Timorese refugees. They came to this district as foreign nationals in dire need of protection," chief of the Belu police resort Adjunct Chief Commissioner Agus Nugroho said here Saturday.

He was responding to a statement by certain quarters that the local government had been paying more attention to the 26 asylum seekers than to former East Timorese refugees residing in emergency camps iu the district.

The statement followed the local government's decision to allow the 26 asylum seekers to reside in a newly-constructed resettlement site, he said.

He said the local government was fully aware that the 26 asylum seekers might have to stay in the resettlement area indefinitely.

The East Timorese asylum seekers left their homes in East Timor's Bobonaro district as they could no longer bear continuous intimidation and threats from people who used to be pro-independence before East Timor seceded from Indonesia in 1999.