East Timor’s President Xanana Gusmao has said some 16,000 refugees from his country living in Indonesia’s neighbouring West Timor province would be welcome to return home. “It is up to the people to make the best decision. The doors of Timor Leste (East Timor) will always be opened, we will always accept them,” Gusmao told West Timor officials during a one-day visit to the impoverished province. Gusmao’s call came just four days before the United Nations refugee agency closes its humanitarian mission in the province after four years. An estimated 250,000 people fled or were forcibly transported by militia gangs across the border to West Timor during the violence that surrounded East Timor’s August 1999 UN-sponsored referendum. Full Story
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