UN debates future support for Timor

NEW YORK - The United Nations Security Council yesterday endorsed the May 20 date East Timorese have set for independence and said 5000 peacekeepers and UN staff would stay in the territory until then.

The council, in a formal statement, agreed to maintain soldiers, civilians and police trainers in East Timor for six months to two years after independence.

But, during an all-day debate chaired by Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, some members contemplated how much cash would be available after May 20.

East Timor has been under UN Administration since late 1999, following 24 years of often-brutal occupation, preceded by four centuries of Portuguese colonial rule.

A UN-organised independence vote in August 1999 resulted in a scorched-earth campaign by Indonesian-Army backed militia that left East Timor in ruins. Australian-led forces halted the rampage.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN Administrator in East Timor, pleaded for the council to stand by the territory after independence, particularly in funding UN technical staff.

"It is inconceivable that new institutions can be created in two years," he said. "The UN administration was starting from scratch, sometimes even from below zero."

He said presidential elections were expected in March or April and acknowledged that the attacks against the United States and the war in Afghanistan might divert funds from East Timor.

Mari Alkatiri, Chief Minister of East Timor's Assembly, said the country needed UN funds as well as bilateral and World Bank aid to build a viable administration.

With unemployment up to 80 per cent, "it is critical that we create the necessary conditions to stimulate domestic private sector activity and attract sound foreign investment.

"We came from very far with a lot of trepidations of this meeting. The expectation of our people is so big," he said. "Without your support it will be very difficult for us to do it."

US envoy James Cunningham stressed that the UN had to get its Security Council-financed East Timor mission down to "zero or near zero" by mid-2004.

Mats Karlsson, a vice-president of the World Bank, told the council that financing for East Timor's budget was already short $US14 million and the territory would have difficulty until oil revenues could be realised in a few years from a joint venture.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said this month that the 9000 UN peacekeepers would be cut to 5000 by independence. Civilian staff would be reduced from 550 to about 100 by May.

But he did not say how many soldiers and staff would remain after independence. That would depend on progress in building institutions. Vieira de Mello has identified "100 core functions" for which local expertise does not exist.

- REUTERS

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