Suebu added that he had also established coordination with all the regents in Papua in preparing the facilities for the Papuans from the PNG, because they will be sent back to their hometowns.

In answer to a question, he also said that the repatriation will be carried out both by land and air. The process by land will go through Wutung in the RI-PNG border," he said.

While 708 Papuans will be repatriated, 2000 to 3000 of them would still be in the neighboring country, but all of them had already registered themselves for the repatriation.

The 708 Papuans will include 9 for Sorong, West Papua, 451 for Jayapura regency, 108 for Boven Digul, 8 for Biak, 4 for Tolikara, 13 for Jayawijaya, 9 for Puncak Jaya, 5 for Merauke, 83 for Keerom, and 49 for Mimika.

The repatriation expenses will be taken from the Papua provincial budget and from the central government4, the governor said.

Since the 1980-1985 period, many Papuans had entered neighboring PNG for political reasons and human right violations during the armed conflict between the Indonesian military (TNI) and OPM (Free Papua Organisation).(*)