15 July 2009

Indonesia and Timor Leste implement commission’s recommendations

Erwida Maulia The Jakarta Post Jakarta 07/14/2009 - The Indonesian government will extend an East Timorese student’s staying permit and return retirement funds belonging to former Indonesian civil servants that are now East Timorese citizens.

The recent moves are just some of the end results of recommendations made in the final report of the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission on Truth and Friendship (CTF), which was delivered in Bali in July 2008.
The Indonesian and East Timorese governments have been working on following-up the recommendations.

"The final report includes a joint statement from the two countries' leaders; so it has become somewhat of a bilateral agreement that needs to be implemented. That is why the Indonesian and Timor Leste governments are drafting the plans of action,” Wiwiek S. Firman, director for human rights and humanity at the Indonesia Foreign Affairs Ministry, told a media briefing Tuesday.

Other priority actions, Wiwiek said, include the simplification of the application process for ID cards for children of ex-East Timorese refugees and a family reunification program that will reunite children separated from their East Timorese parents after the 1999 referendum, which led to the formation of the sovereign state of Timor Leste.

Partnerships in culture and tourism, as well as a number of joint education and training programs are also part of the action plan, which will be launched by the Indonesian government in Dili on July 19.

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