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East Timor hopes 24-thousand refugees will return by May
A leader of East Timor's ruling Fretilin party says thousands of East Timorese living as refugees in Indonesia could return home before the territory becomes officially independent next May.
Fretilin second-in-command, Mari Alkatiri, has told participants at a donors' conference in Oslo he hopes that between 20-thousand and 24-thousand refugees will return home by May the 20th.
An estimated 250-thousand to 300-thousand East Timorese either fled across the border into the Indonesian province of West Timor or were forced across by militias when violence broke out after a referendum on independence in 1999.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says almost 190-thousand East Timorese refugees have been repatriated from West Timor in the past two years, but an estimated 77-thousand remain.
Mr Alkatiri promised reconciliation with justice for those among them who fought with the pro-Indonesian militias.
13/12/01 12:06:27 | ABC Radio Australia News
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