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Agense Franse Presse Jakarta

Joint demarcation teams begin survey in Timor border area

Representatives of East Timor and Indonesia have begun a Joint Reconnaissance Survey aimed at demarcating their land border, a report received here Tuesday said.

The 12-day survey began in the West Timor border town of Atambua on Monday, a press release of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor said.

The teams, including surveyors and diplomats from each side, are set to visit the border districts of Covalima, Maliana in East Timor as well as the Oecussi enclave in the coming days.

They will attempt to locate old border markers and study geological features as well as social and technical issues linked to border delineation.

The schedule for the survey was agreed upon at a technical meeting held in Denpasar, on the Indonesian resort island of Bali last week.

"I think we have achieved what we set out to do (at the technical meeting,)" said Nelson Santos, Director of Bilateral Affairs at East Timor's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "We found there was a very good spirit of cooperation from the Indonesian side."

The launch of the border demarcation process has been a major goal of the United Nations before the end of the transition period.

East Timor, bordering Indonesia's West Timor, had been regarded as Jakart's 27th province for 24 years.

It has been under UN administration since October 1999 following the pro-independence results of a UN-held self determination ballot in August that year.

East Timor is scheduled to become the millennium's first new state when it gains independence on May 20.