Border Area of Indonesia-East Timor to Be Barren
Saturday, 22 October, 2005 | 03:15 WI

Four percent of Indonesia-East Timor border area that is yet to be settled by both governments will left barren.

“This agreement comes as a result of Indonesia-East Timor meeting on October 11,” said Indonesian Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Yuri Oktavian Thamrin to reporters on Friday (21/10).

The border areas that are yet to be agreed on are in Manusasi three kilometers long and Noei Besi four kilometers long. The Subina area, 20 kilometers long, is yet to surveyed.

Sometime ago, there was an incident in the unsettled area. According to Thamrin, the incident came as a misperception between the citizens who were confused about the border regions of Indonesia and East Timor.

Following the October 11 meeting, the parties will meet again on November 2 to discuss the border matters, the incident on the border and the next survey program.

The meeting will be held in the framework of the Technical Sub-Committee on Border Demarcation and Regulations under the Joint Border Committee (JBC) that has a mandate to delineate and determine the border demarcations of the two countries.

The Committee meets regularly two-three times a year while the field survey is carried out every two months. The chairman of the technical sub-committee in Indonesia is National Mapping and Survey Coordination Institution, with the related members coupled to such departments as the Foreign Affairs Department, Home Affairs, the Defense Department and the Indonesian Military (TNI) Headquarters (HQ). (Fanny Febiana)

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