UN to send 5,000 personnel to East Timor
JAKARTA (JP): The United Nations plans to deploy nearly 5,000 personnel, including 280 civilian police officers, for its operations in organizing the August ballot in East Timor.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented to the Security Council on Monday a plan to establish the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) which will organize and conduct the "popular consultation", as the vote is officially called.
In the ballot, scheduled for Aug. 8, East Timorese will be asked whether they accept the Indonesian government's offer to remain part of the republic with wide-ranging autonomy powers. A rejection will set off the process of separation.
Annan's report, a copy of which was made available in Jakarta on Tuesday, said the UN deployment will include 241 international staff members and 420 UN volunteers, up to 280 civilian police, and some 4,000 local staff.
Annan confirmed the appointment of Britain's Ian Martin as head of UNAMET and special representative for the East Timor Popular Consultation. Jamsheed Marker will continue to serve as his personal representative to East Timor. UNAMET will be headquartered in Dili and will have seven regional centers.
The UN police would act as advisers to the Indonesian police in discharging their duties, including supervising the escort of ballot papers and boxes to and from polling sites.
The report left out the issue of disarming the proindependence and prointegration factions, which the United Nations has insisted is the responsibility of the Indonesian Military.
Annan said the Indonesian Military has failed to maintain peace in East Timor, as violence between pro-Indonesian militias and proindependence groups has threatened the prospects for peaceful balloting.
"I regret to inform the Security Council that credible reports continue to be received of political violence, including intimidation and killings by armed militias against unarmed proindependence civilians," Annan said.
"The situation in East Timor remains extremely tense and volatile," he said.
The vote was originally set for Sunday Aug. 8, but Indonesia has proposed to move it one day forward to respect the Roman Catholics who make up the majority of East Timorese.
A UN spokesman was quoted by AFP as saying in New York that the Indonesian proposal was being looked at.
In Dili, the Roman Catholic Church denied suggestions that it had asked the Indonesian government to bring forward the election, Antara reported.
"For us, holding the popular consultation on Sunday is not a problem because Christians will fulfill their prayers first in the morning before casting their ballots," Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
The mass schedules could be rearranged to facilitate both prayers and voting, he said.
"If anyone claims to be speaking on behalf of the Church, then that is a big lie to serve certain political interests," he said.
Meanwhile, six foreign diplomats met with jailed East Timor rebel leader Jose Alexandre Xanana Gusmao in the latter's detention house in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.
Australian Ambassador John McCarthy said after the two-hour meeting that they had all agreed not to disclose the content of the meeting to reporters.
The other five were from Britain, the Philippines, the United States, Germany and Japan.
The six countries were chosen by President B.J. Habibie to take part in the UN mission to help organize the August ballot.
Xanana's lawyer Hendardi of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Right Association said the meeting discussed solutions to East Timor's problems. (01/33/emb)