DATE=05/03/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-289406

TITLE=EAST TIMOR / REFUGEES (L ONLY)

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

INTRO: The United Nations refugee agency says more than six-thousand refugees returned to East Timor over the past month, the highest figure in more than two years. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports agency officials hope tens of thousands of other refugees will return home to the soon-to-be independent state.

TEXT: The U-N refugee agency calls the return of the six-thousand refugees a vote of confidence in East Timor, which will become fully independent on May 20th. The agency says it hopes these returns will encourage some 55-thousand remaining refugees to go back to the homes they fled in August 1999. About a quarter of a million people fled East Timor following the violence that erupted after a referendum on the island's independence.

The East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, and the violence was blamed on militia groups who wanted East Timor to remain part of Indonesia.

U-N-H-C-R spokesman Peter Kessler says the vast majority of the remaining refugees are now living in settlements in West Timor. He says many of them want to go home, but are afraid to do so.

/// KESSLER ACT ///

The main concern is that the sway of the militias in a few of these isolated regions of West Timor remains large. But we hope that the coming independence of East Timor, the reconciliation process will also encourage people to go back.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Kessler says there have been virtually no reports of violence against Timorese who have returned home, and this should give the refugees confidence that they can return safely.

He says President-elect Xanana Gusmao is working with the U-N-H-C-R to encourage the refugees to repatriate and to work toward reconciliation. (Signed)

NEB/LS/KL/KBK