Indonesia to Allow Refugees to Return Home to E. Timor

The Indonesian government will let the United Nations fly refugees home to East Timor from their squalid camps in West Timor, U.N. officials said Sunday, offering hope to more than 100,000 people evicted from their homeland.

Craig Sanders, who is leading a U.N. assessment mission in West Timor, said some refugees could be taken back on U.N.-chartered flights as early as Wednesday.

In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata welcomed the news, which she said was the first tangible result of her meeting last month with Indonesian President B. J. Habibie.

Pro-Indonesian militias went on a bloody rampage in East Timor after the territory voted overwhelmingly to break away from Indonesia, which had ruled the former Portuguese colony since 1975.

Many of the refugees in West Timor are in camps controlled by the same militias, and concerns remain about their safety.

In Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, the nation’s highest legislative body elected Amien Rais of the National Mandate Party as its speaker Sunday, a position that could gain real power for the first time under democratic reforms.