UN needs coherent strategy to exit from East Timor
Paulo Gorjao, Lisabon
East Timor, officially Timor Leste since independence in May 2002, celebrated the second anniversary as a sovereign nation on May 20, fully aware that everything will be quite different 12 months from now. It has already been decided that on May 20, 2005, the security and stability umbrella provided by the United Nations peacekeeping operation will end.
On May 14, the United Nations Security Council adopted unanimously Resolution 1543 extending the mandate of the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) for a period of six months, with a view to extending it further for final period of six months.
Moreover, the size of UNMISET was drastically reduced. From now on, there will be only 58 civilian advisers, 157 civilian police advisers, 42 military liaison officers, 310 formed troops and a 125-person International Response Unit under UNMISET's political authority.
The tasks of UNMISET were also revised. The main goals in the next twelve months will be supporting the public administration and justice system; supporting the development of law enforcement; and supporting the security and stability.
Security Council members -- in particular the United Kingdom and the United States -- believe that a peacekeeping operation is no longer needed. Yet, much remains to be done in the forthcoming months to allow East Timor to reach a critical threshold of self- sufficiency, as well as security and stability.
As far as stability and security are concerned, UNMISET will have to provide support and guidance regarding several key issues. For instance, East Timor still lacks a national police service law. This is crucial for the development of the police service, as well as to enable the international community to support the process.
It is also essential for the effective maintenance of law and order to reach an agreement about the roles of national police and armed forces, particularly with regard to back-up arrangements for support to the civil power.
On the other hand, UNMISET also needs to supervise and promote the need for progress clarifying East Timor's security policy and structure. East Timorese armed forces are confronted with several serious institutional problems, including a poorly understood definition of its role, low morale, uncertain respect for discipline and authority, insufficient training of personnel, and unresolved relations with former combatants.
At the same time that East Timor must cope with the challenges above, it must also prepare itself, with bilateral assistance, for the first elections since independence on May 20, 2002. A village elections bill establishing a National Electoral Commission (NEC) was promulgated recently, and the NEC members' were already sworn-in. Moreover, a bill was already signed regulating political parties, as well as a decree-law defining the roles and functions of the village heads and councils. Under normal circumstances, the elections will take place in the last few months of 2004.
With local attention dispersed through so many issues, it becomes even more crucial that, in the forthcoming months, UNMISET devises a coherent exit strategy, allowing a smooth transition towards the next phase of East Timorese national development.
After May 2005, the United Nations peacekeeping operation in East Timor will end. Thus, further assistance will have to be channeled through bilateral and multilateral donors, regional mechanisms, non-governmental organizations, private sector entities and other actors from within the international community.
The writer, lecturer at Lusiada University, can be reached at paulogorjao@yahoo.com