Army ready for refugee influx

New Zealand soldiers patrolling the border between East and West Timor are expecting an upsurge in the flow of refugees across the border over the next few weeks.

Indonesia has told East Timorese refugees, who fled or were forced to the Indonesia-held west of the island to escape violence last year, that they must decide by the end of next month where they want to live.

More than 250,000 East Timorese fled to the west to escape the violence and destruction carried out by militias backed by the Indonesian military after an independence vote last August.

Many have been returning, however, since United Nations' peacekeepers took control of East Timor and the border regions.

About 100,000 are still thought to be living in atrocious conditions in refugee camps on the western side of the border.

New Zealand Army spokesman Major Bede Fahey said there had been a steady return of East Timorese from the west to the east, but said the troops expected this to increase now that the Indonesians had set a deadline for a decision.

He said up to 15,000 refugees might choose to return to the east and cross over border checkpoints controlled by armed New Zealand troops.

Major Fahey said confusion over a border, which led to a shootout between Interfet troops and the Indonesian Army, was being resolved.

"One of the issues they have had to work through and agree on is exactly which map we are using.

"The actual pin-pointing on the border will then be worked through on a mutually agreed process and that has yet to be done."

The border is opened once a week to allow East Timorese to meet relatives who fled to West Timor.

About 130,000 refugees have returned to the east, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration say the border remains a dangerous place for East Timorese trying to return.

- NZPA