East Timor: Plea made for refugees to return home
East Timor’s independence leader Xanana Gusmao travelled to the neighbouring Indonesian province of West Timor today in another effort to persuade about 50,000 remaining refugees to return home.
Gusmao, accompanied by his Australian wife Kirsty and infant son, met West Timor governor Piet Tallo in the capital Kupang shortly after touching down at El-Tari airport.
He is due to talk to local government and military officials, clerics and East Timorese militia leaders, as well as visiting a refugee camp near Kupang.
The visit is the latest in a series of initiatives by Gusmao to persuade refugees to return home before East Timor becomes independent in May 2002.
After the territory’s overwhelming vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999, some 260,000 refugees fled or were forced into West Timor by the Indonesian military and pro-Jakarta militiamen.
