Aid agencies disagree. Life in the camps is hell. While numbers are impossible to verify, those now back in East Timor tell of rampant intimidation over the border. They say there are nightly roll calls by militias who patrol with machetes. They claim many refugees are forced to leave behind relatives when they go to market as insurance that they will come back.
Rumors circulate that peacekeepers rape women and beat men who cross the border.
Fernando Noronha arrived at Junction Point Charlie with his wife Francisca, five of his nine children, the family dog and a cartload of belongings. For Noronha, a rice and corn farmer, the decision to head for home was triggered by waning food supplies in the camps and the beginning of the rainy season, which will worsen conditions for future crossings. His four grown sons went ahead to their village some months ago to prepare for the family's homecoming. Like the Noronhas, an uneven stream of refugees has completed the morning's border trek. Children, goats, pigs in tow.