UN will pull out of E. Timor in 2002

UN will pull out of E. Timor in 2002

DILI, East Timor (Agencies): The United Nations will pull out of East Timor in 2002, a top official said on Monday, allaying concerns the fledgling nation may not be ready for independence.

"UNTAET (UN Transitional Administration in East Timor) will not be running the show in 2002, a newly-elected Timorese government will be, with a limited internal capacity," United Nations Development Program head Mark Malloch Brown said.

But Malloch Brown, the third-highest ranking UN official, urged East Timor's political leaders to agree on a set of national priorities to ensure the half-island territory has a soft economic landing when the bulk of the UN mission leaves.

"There will be a big bump created by the withdrawal of some components of UNTAET so there will be some possibility of a downturn in the Dili economy."

In the short term, he said 50 percent of East Timor's GDP would be generated from foreign aid.

East Timor and its economy was left in tatters following a rampage by pro-Indonesian militias, triggered by an overwhelming vote for independence from Indonesia in a UN-brokered ballot in August 1999.

The UN estimates at least 1,000 people were killed in the violence and nearly one third of the 800,000-strong population herded across the border into refugee camps in Indonesian West Timor.

During a visit to Jakarta last Friday, Malloch Brown said East Timor's economy had struggled to get back on its feet after the destruction, largely because foreign aid was not flowing fast enough.

International donors in December 1999 agreed to provide the ravaged territory $520 million but Malloch Brown said only $136 million had been disbursed so far.

"It comes back to the donors because they just didn't give the money to the organizations charged with the medium-term rehabilitation," he told Reuters in Jakarta.

He also called on East Timor's UN administrators to focus on developing the skills of local civil servants amid fears that there may be a vacuum of experienced officials when the world body pulls out.

Malloch Brown said the transitional administration should speed up the training of local officials.

"It has to be driven through the whole international establishment that their absolute priority is to ensure their own redundancy," he said at the end of a three-day visit to East Timor.

Neither Indonesia nor Portugal, which ruled East Timor for four centuries, significantly trained or educated East Timor's 800,000 population. This lead to an acute shortage of East Timorese with professional skills.

The tiny half-island territory is one of the world's poorest regions with half the population living on less than one dollar a day.

The United Nations took over the task of administrating East Timor after the population overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia in August 1999.