Papua New Guinea Repatriates Indonesian Citizens
Thursday, 19 November, 2009 | 21:03 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Papua New Guinea repatriated on Thursday 141 papuans on Thursday as part of the program to return about 700 Indonesian citizens in the Papua New Guinea territory.

The batch of Indonesian Papuans were flown to Jayapura on Thursday in two flights. The first one came from Wiwek which consisted of 68 people arrived at 10:40 am local time (+9GMT). The second flight arrived at 3 pm from Port Moresby carrying 73 people.

One of the repatriates Benyamin Adolf Prawar, 60, said he had been living in Papua New Guinea for 30 years when he was returned, after escaping Irian Jaya, the previous name for Papua province, in 1979 for political reason.

Reportedly tere were about 700 Indonesian Papuans in Papua New Guinea scheduled to be flown back to Indonesia. The remaining batch was scheduled to be flown on November 22.

Director General of the Public Management of the Home Affairs Department Sutrisno, said the returning Indonesian citizens will stay at the Provincial Work Training Center for identification and legal documentation, before being returned to their native areas.

CUNDING LEVI