Studying the responsibility of Indonesia to give protection for people of East Timor living in East Nusa Tenggara and chose to maintain their Indonesian nationality status, Yohanes Bernando, S.H., M. Hum, earned his doctorate degree on Law from Universitas Gadjah Mada. Bernando graduated after defending his dissertation entitled The Responsibility of Indonesia to Give Protection for People of East Timor in East Nusa Tenggara.
In a wider area, according to Bernando Seran, there are dualism of law regime for people of East Timor. On one side, they are treated by law of refugee that was arranged on Vienna convention and protocol about refugee status in 1967 which was supposed to be used since 1999 to December 31st, 2002.
On the other hand, the status for people of East Timor from refugees to Displaced Persons who were taken care by Indonesian Government or other international organizations. The dualism of law became more complicated while Indonesian Government proclaimed Presidential Decree Number 25 year 2003 about listing people from East Timor, they were given options to choose to be Indonesian or going back to Timor Leste.
"This dissertation aims to find transition regime that can be used to take care of the refugees status on people of East Timor. Besides, it is to find internal policies for refugees, especially Timor Leste, which is until now is ineffective on civil right matter," Bernando said on his Defense at facuty of Law, UGM, Friday (11/27)
By producing the Presidential Decree, Indonesian Government could get clear status on these people that reside in Indonesia. With that clear legal status, the Indonesian government could use Presidential Decree Number 47 year 2000 to deal with assets left by those people.
Meanwhile, to solve the problem of East Timor parliamentarian members, the Indonesian government released Presidential Decree number 50 year 2002 about Honorary Fee for the MPs. On civil servant-related issue, the government released regulation number 5 year 2001 about cancellation of work status.
As a form of responsibility, the Indonesian Government will use Law Number 39 Year 1999 about civil right article 71 that the government ought to respect and protect their civil right. As an effort to give protection, the Government had issued short to long period programs.
"The short period includes clothes, home, and food while the advance program includes the recovery of people in the refugees area," he explained.