UNSC set to extend mission in East Timor
UNSC set to extend mission in East Timor
Agence France-Press, United Nations
The UN Security Council on Friday is to renew for six months the mandate of the UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET), the United Nations said on Thursday.
The resolution, to be adopted by the council in open session, states that the six-month extension of UNMISET's mandate be followed by a subsequent mandate extension "for a further and final period of six months, until May 20, 2005."
Reporters saw copies of the resolution on Thursday.
UNMISET, whose mandate expires in a week, was set up under Security Council resolution 1480 on May 19 2003, when the former Portuguese colony, occupied for 30 years by Indonesia, gained independence under UN auspices.
In a Security Council report in early May, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recommended the UNMISET mandate be extended for a year.
An extension of the UN mandate would be expected to "accomplish essential tasks" and "reinforce those accomplished," Annan said, adding that this would help propel East Timor toward autonomy.
The resolution follows Annan's recommendations on UNMISET personnel to be set at 58 civilian advisors, 157 police advisors, 42 military liaison officers, 310 trained troops and a 125-person International Response Unit.
It also sets a final deadline of May 20, 2005 for the activities of the unit charged with investigating atrocities committed a day after the independence referendum in 1999 by pro- Indonesian militias organized by Jakarta's army.
On Monday, a UN-backed tribunal in East Timor issued an arrest warrant for Indonesian presidential candidate Gen. (ret.) Wiranto for crimes against humanity in the territory in 1999, denied by Wiranto.
In Jakarta, Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty A. Natalegawa reiterated on Friday that the government would continue to reject the arrest warrant for Wiranto as it had no jurisdiction over Indonesians.
He said that the East Timor's court itself has a different opinion with the UN-backed tribunal about the warrant.
"So, we feel that we don't need to respond the issuance of the warrant," he told reporters.
East Timor's chief prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro has asked judges to revoke an arrest warrant for Wiranto, saying it was 'premature.'
Wiranto was Indonesia's military chief when army-backed militiamen waged a murderous campaign against independence supporters in East Timor, then an Indonesian territory.
Some 1,400 people were murdered before and after East Timorese voted in the August 1999 referendum.