NGO's Criticize Indonesia's Registration of E Timor Refugees
also: Deadline on Timor, Boston Globe
editorial
The following letter sent to U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Robert
Gelbard from U.S.-based NGOs concerning the controversial June 6
registration of East Timorese refugees in West Timor.
The East Timor Action Network is currently hosting Winston
Neil Rondo, General Secretary of the Centre for Internally Displaced
People’s Services (CIS), on speaking tour of the U.S. Rondo has worked
with East Timorese refugees in the West Timor camps since they were forced
from East Timor in September 1999. In conjunction with international
agencies, CIS has provided humanitarian assistance, investigated human
rights abuses, counseled women victims of violence, and disseminated
accurate information to refugees on repatriation to combat militia
intimidation He is available for interviews. Contact: John
M. Miller; (718)596-7668; 917-690-4391.
Washington, DC 20003
1 June 2001
The Honorable Robert F. Gelbard
U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia
Jakarta, Indonesia
Dear Ambassador Gelbard:
We are alarmed that plans for the seriously flawed June 6 registration
of East Timorese refugees in West Timor are going forward without strong
international protest. Any registration that occurs while militia still
clearly control the camps, intimidate refugees, and spread misinformation
about conditions in East Timor will not only be inaccurate but will have
long-term dangerous consequences. Plans to permanently resettle refugees
throughout West Timor, especially near the border, will threaten the peace
and security of both East and West Timor for years to come, creating a
long-term breeding ground for militia activities.
Arguments that the registration must be held June 6 because of the June
20 registration deadline in East Timor for the Constituent Assembly
election are not valid; it is highly unlikely that refugees choosing to
return to East Timor will be able to repatriate and settle into East Timor
in time to register by June 20. In any case, UNTAET has made arrangements
for refugees not yet ready to return to register and vote on the East
Timor side of the border.
A registration that is safe, free, and accurate will be impossible as
long as the Indonesian government and security forces engage in only
half-hearted efforts to disarm and disband militia in West Timor and
refuse to arrest militia leaders. The extremely lenient sentences just
given to six militia members convicted of the September 2000 murders of
three UNHCR workers in West Timor, including a U.S. citizen, are just one
recent example of Indonesia's failure to address the situation. With armed
and hostile militia at large in West Timor, international involvement and
oversight of the refugee registration will remain blocked by the lack of
security.
The current registration process is severely flawed in other ways.
Among a host of others, the time lag between registration and possible
repatriation is too long; only the head of often large and fluidly-defined
families will decide whether to resettle or repatriate; and the Indonesian
government refugee task force works hand-in-hand with UNTAS, the political
front for the militia. Many questions remain about the socialization
campaign itself and possible actors involved in the campaign, including
the Red and White Defenders Task Force, as well as the lack of a clear
statement by the Indonesian government on the purpose of the registration
and how registration data will be used. Moreover, there are many credible
reports of continued military support for the militia.
We request that you condemn this dangerous attempt at refugee
registration, publicly withhold any U.S. support or recognition of the
June 6 registration and its results, and make clear that the U.S. will not
provide legitimacy to any registration process until there is significant
UN and other international oversight and participation. We ask you to
redouble efforts to pressure Indonesia to verifiably disarm and disband
militia groups that stand in the way of an accurate and truthful
registration to finally resolve the humanitarian and political crisis in
West Timor. The U.S. should present Indonesia with concrete consequences
in terms of support if it fails to do so. We also request that you provide
us with clarification of U.S. policy for dealing with this crisis.
Thank you for your attention. We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Karen Orenstein
Washington Coordinator
East Timor Action Network
Kurt Biddle
Washington Coordinator
Indonesia Human Rights Network
Miriam A. Young
Executive Director
Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace
Jana Mason
Policy Analyst/Congressional Liaison
U.S. Committee for Refugees
Mubarak Awad
Chair of the Board
Nonviolence International
Cc. Secretary of State Colin Powell
Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly
Assistant Secretary of State Alan Kreczko
Assistant Secretary of State Michael Parmly
Mr. John Klink
Ms. Mary Tighe, National Security Council
see also TAPOL's
Letter to UNHCR
Background on Refugees
The Boston Globe J
JUNE 4, 2001, Monday
EDITORIAL: DEADLINE ON TIMOR
WHEN THE people of East Timor voted overwhelmingly to become
independent from Indonesia on Aug. 30, 2000 (sic), the event was
celebrated around the world as an exhilarating triumph for human rights
and democratic self-determination. What immediately ensued, however, was a
deliberate campaign of murder and destruction carried out by militias
spawned by the Indonesian military.
Today there are between 80,000 and 100,000 East Timorese held like
hostages in refugee camps in Indonesian West Timor. They are malnourished
and in need of medical care. They live in fear of militias and Indonesian
soldiers who hold them captive. Until those refugees are allowed to make a
free choice either to return to East Timor or to resettle in Indonesia,
the bright hopes of Aug. 30 will remain a cruel illusion.
East Timor suffered a brutal military conquest in 1975 and a quarter
century of genocidal occupation by the Indonesian Army. Hence the
referendum on independence supervised by the United Nations seemed to mark
a new stage in that organization's willingness and ability to protect a
colonized people from a member-state. And because the United States
provided support and logistics, but not soldiers, for a multilateral
peacekeeping force in East Timor, the midwifing of East Timor's birth as
an independent nation also became a paradigm of how Washington can assist
in international humanitarian missions without placing uniformed Americans
at risk.
Indonesia intends to stage a one-day registration of East Timorese
refugees trapped in the West Timor camps on Wednesday. Time is running out
for the UN and the Bush administration to finish properly the task
undertaken in East Timor two years ago.
At present, UN and humanitarian groups have almost no unhampered access
to the refugees. Since three UN aid workers were murdered by militia
members last September, the UN has refused to send its people back into
the refugee camps. The militias and the Indonesian military are thus able
to spread misinformation about the choice the refugees will make Wednesday
between repatriation and resettlement in Indonesia. And the misinformation
is supplemented by threats.
As long as the refugees remain in the camps, they attract aid funds
from abroad that can be skimmed into the pockets of militia leaders and
Indonesian officers. If the refugees' captors can control the registration
process this week, they can make it appear that most of the refugees do
not want to go home.
Along with the UN, President Bush should demand that Indonesia disarm
and disband the militias abusing the refugees and allow international
supervision of any registration process. All refugees who wish to go home
must be allowed to do so. The new life of East Timor's independence must
not be stillborn.
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