Indonesia Asking Thousands of East Timorese if They Want to Return to Their U.N.-Controlled Home
KARUNA SHINSHO, CNN ANCHOR: Indonesia is asking tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees to decide if they want to return to their U.N.- controlled home. The refugees are currently living in camps in Indonesian- controlled West Timor. Atika Shubert has more.</s>ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thousands of Timorese refugees line up to answer one question: return to East Timor, or remain in Indonesia? It's a difficult question for these refugees, risking possible violence from pro-Indonesia militias that live in these border camps. These are the roughly 100,000 refugees that remain in Indonesia-controlled West Timor. Following East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia in September, 1999, militias forced an estimated 300,000 to cross over in an orgy of violence and destruction. The U.N. High Commission for refugees expects at least 80 percent of those that remain in West Timor to return, despite the violence that plagues the camps. In September of last year three U.N. workers were murdered in a militia rampage, forcing an evacuation of all international staff and a delay in refugee repatriation. This time, there has been little violence, but that has not eased the concerns of the UNHCR. They say, as long as militia leaders continue to operate in the camps, unpunished for their crimes, problems will continue. Atika Shubert, CNN, Jakarta.