The Indonesian government plans to reopen its border with Timor Leste, Indonesian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Desra Percaya said Monday, adding the technical implementation would be left to the officials in the field.
 
"We have heard President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's statement that the government would reopen the border selectively. But up to now, we have no idea yet which points are going to be reopened. The technical implementation of border reopening is left to the official in the field," he was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying.

Percaya said that the reopening of certain check-points in the border with Timor Leste would be adjusted to the need so that the flow of essential commodity supply would be smooth.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in Bali last Saturday that the government will selectively reopen its border with Timor Leste.

"It is necessary to open the border in a selective manner in order to enable traffic between two countries to run normally again," the president said after a meeting with his Timor Leste counterpart, Xanana Gusmao, at the Grand Bali Beach hotel on Saturday evening.

Yudhoyono said the reopening of the border selectively will be conducted for the sake of social and economic consideration as well as to smooth traffic between the two countries.

He stressed the border would be opened even though the security situation in Timor Leste had yet to return to normal.

Indonesia closed its border with Timor Leste recently in anticipation of a possible exodus of Timor Leste people into Indonesian controlled West Timor, but no significant border crossings have been seen so far since unrest broke up in the tiny neighbor last month.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2006)