Timorese refugees cancel plans for home

About 500 East Timorese refugees cancelled a plan to return home from Indonesian West Timor citing concerns about security and a lack of food and shelter, the UN said.

The refugees were expected to cross into East Timor later this week and travel to the central Ainaro district as part of an ongoing UN-sponsored repatriation programme.

But the UN’s Chief of Staff in East Timor, Nagalingam Parameswaran said he had received a telephone call from former militia leader Cancio Lopes de Carvalho in West Timor saying the refugees feared returning.