UNITED NATIONS TRANSITIONAL ADMINISTRATION IN EAST TIMOR
Dili, 19 July 2001
SRSG, GUSM_O, HORTA ATTEND ASEAN MINISTERIAL MEETING
Cabinet Member for Foreign Affairs, Jos_ Ramos-Horta, will depart tomorrow,
20 July, to Hanoi, Vietnam, to attend ASEAN 34th Ministerial Meeting on
23-24 July.
The SRSG Sergio Vieira de Mello departs to Hanoi on Saturday, 21 July, to
lead a delegation that includes his Chief of Staff N. Paranmeswaran, Xanana
Gusm_o and East Timorese diplomats from the Department of Foreign Affairs
of the East Timor Transitional Administration.
For the second year in a row, the host of the ASEAN annual Ministerial
Meeting invited UNTAET and the East Timorese leadership to attend the
forum. East Timor/UNTAET will participate in the opening and closing sessions.
From Hanoi, the SRSG and Ramos-Horta will travel to New York for the
United Nations Security Council Open Meeting on East Timor, to be held on
30 July.
CHINA DONATES US$3 MILLION IN AID TO FISHERIES
Representatives of the People's Republic of China today donated three
million dollar's worth of fishing equipment to East Timor in order to
assist in the rehabilitation of the fishing industry following the loss of
equipment during the violence of 1999.
The donated equipment includes 1,500 panels of fishing net, three tones of
fishing line, 500 insulated ice-boxes, 300 outboard motors, 2,00
lifejackets, and other assorted items.
The equipment was presented at a ceremony at Hera, some 20 kilometers east
of the capital Dili.
------
Dili, 18 July 2001
JOINT BORDER COMMITTEE TO MEET IN JAKARTA
A Joint Border Committee comprising East Timorese and
Indonesian officials will hold a two-day meeting in Jakarta beginning
tomorrow, July 19, aimed at resolving practical issues and problems of
a cross-border nature.
East Timor's 13-member delegation will be led by Lakhan
Mehrotra, Director of UNTAET's office in Jakarta, and will include
officials from the East Timor Transitional Administration, the
Peacekeeping Force, Civilian Police, Military Observers, and UNTAET's
office of Political Affairs. East Timorese Defense Force Commander Taur
Matan Ruak will also attend.
The participants will split into four sub-committees to discuss
cross border security cooperation; police cooperation; demarcation
and regulation of the border; and cross border movement of people and goods.
The Joint Border Committee was established last September and first
met in late January of this year.
TWO NEW CABINET MEMBERS SWORN IN
The East Timorese Transitional Cabinet today swore in Ov_dio de
Jesus Amaral as the Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, following the
decision of Jo_o Carrascal_o to suspend his Cabinet activities during
the electoral campaign.
Amaral will hold this position until the formation of the
next transitional Cabinet after the 30 August elections for the
Constituent Assembly. Nicola Dahrendorf was also sworn in as the Cabinet
Member for Police and Emergency Services, until such time as Deputy SRSG
Dennis McNamara assumes this Cabinet portfolio.
Cabinet discussed the National Council's proposed revisions to
a regulation which seeks to amend existing regulations which
established the Transitional Judicial Services Commission, the court
system and the Public Prosecution Service. Cabinet recommended that the
Transitional Administrator promulgate the regulations incorporating most
of the amendments.
Cabinet accepted the National Council's proposed amendments to the
draft regulation on the establishment of a Prison Service in East Timor,
and referred the text to the Transitional Administrator for promulgation.
Cabinet considered the National Council's suggested amendments to
the draft Regulation on the Establishment of the Legal Aid Service in
East Timor. Cabinet agreed with some of these amendments and recommended
that the Transitional Administrator promulgation the text on this basis.
Cabinet discussed a report from the Infrastructure Department
reviewing the operation of East Timor Transitional Administration's land
policy.
Finally, Cabinet discussed the need for the Power Service to operate
on a financially sustainable basis and tariff structures that would
support this.
----------
Dili, 17 July 2001
MILITIA MEMBER SENTENCED IN UNAMET MURDER CASE A Serious Crimes Panel in
Dili yesterday convicted a former militia member to 15 year_s imprisonment
for the murder of a United Nations official in Ermera district following
the Popular Consultation of 1999. United Nations Mission in East Timor
(UNAMET) local staff member Manuel de Oliveira was seized by a militia
group in Ermera_s Atsabe subdistrict on 31 August 1999 and subsequently
beaten and stabbed to death. Agustinho da Costa, who was convicted of the
murder, was a member of the Team Pancasila Pemuda militia group. He claimed
that Indonesian soldiers had identified Manuel de Oliveira as a member of
the pro-independence guerrilla Falantil. This is the first case in which a
person has been convicted of killing a UNAMET official. Nine UNAMET local
personnel were killed during the violence surrounding the 30 August 1999
Popular Consultation. UNAMET was in East Timor between July and September 1999.
VOTER EXHIBITION AND CHALLENGE PERIOD GETS UNDERWAY
The preliminary lists of voters eligible to take part in the upcoming
Constituent Assembly elections were posted yesterday, 16 July, in all 65
sub-districts of East Timor for a ten-day exhibition and challenge period.
The Independent Electoral Commission_s (IEC) Chief Electoral Officer Carlos
Valenzuela today appealed the population to confirm that their names are
included on the preliminary lists. In Dili alone, more than 4,000 East
Timorese have already visited exhibition and challenge centers.
_The Independent Electoral Commission encourages as many people as possible
to visit exhibition and challenge centers during this period, as this will
be the only opportunity to correct any identified errors,_ Valenzuela said.
The exhibition and challenge period will also be the first opportunity for
the population to find out where they are assigned to vote in the
Constituent Assembly elections.
As scheduled, on 30 June UNTAET_s Civil Registration Unit turned over a
copy of its database to the IEC for the development of the preliminary
voter lists. Before the handover of the database, quality control checks
were carried out and some problems identified.
_The Civil Registration Unit worked intensely in finding solutions, yet
some problems remained at the time of the handover,_ Valenzuela said. _The
Electoral Commissioners have expressed concern over these problems,
particularly the number of names that may be missing from the database
because of failures in the transfer of data from registration locations to
the Civil Registration Unit_s central server._
Over 6,500 names have been recovered, and Civil Registration Unit does not
expect that more missing names will be identified.
More than 70 exhibition and challenge sites opened yesterday and will be
operating until July 25. In addition, at least one mobile team will be
operating in each sub-district. All sites will be open on Saturday and Sunday.
In related news, political parties and independent candidates officially
began campaigning on 15 July. The previous day the IEC had made public the
final list of candidates and handed them to the political parties and
independent candidates. The final numbers are: 16 political parties with a
total of 963 candidates for national representatives (255 of them women, or
27%), and 85 candidates for district representatives (of whom only five are
women).
Additionally, there are five registered independent candidates for national
seats (three of whom are women) and 11 registered independent candidates
for district seats (3 of whom are women). The districts of Lautem and
Oecussi have the largest number of independent candidates.
The order in which parties and candidates will appear on each of the
fourteen ballots was determined by a lottery at both the IEC Headquarters
and at each district Electoral Office. For this purpose, the IEC held
fourteen events that were attended by a majority of the national party
representatives and the district candidates, as well as by numerous press,
radio and TV journalists.
SRSG HOLDS OPEN DIALOGUE SESSIONS IN DISTRICTS
SRSG Sergio Vieira de Mello and representatives from 12 political parties
today took part in Open Dialogue sessions in Viqueque and Lautem districts.
At the beginning of each of the three-hour sessions, the newly signed Pact
of National Unity was read aloud and then distributed to the hundreds of
people in attendance.
Participants at both sessions directed a wide range of questions to the
political parties and expressed enthusiasm that the pact had been signed.
The political parties present reiterated at both meetings that they are
fully committed to the pact.
The pact, signed on July 8, calls for the support, respect and
dissemination of the principle of non-violence; the unconditional
acceptance of the 30 August 1999 Popular Consultation results; and the
respect of the results of the upcoming elections.
At both meetings the SRSG appealed for a full participation in the
political process, calling on the population to attend political party
meetings to demand that party leaders and independent candidates
articulately present their programs and ideas. Upon his arrival in Viqueque
town, the SRSG officially opened a Political Parties Resource
Center before beginning the Open Dialogue session attended by an estimated
500 people. A larger crowd of some 700 people attended the session in Lospalos.
UNTAET RADIO AND TELEVISION AIR FIRST POLITICAL DEBATE
Fifteen political parties registered in the upcoming Constituent Assembly
elections today took part in an eight-hour debate moderated by Cabinet
Member for Foreign Affairs Jos_ Ramos-Horta.
Each of the parties present at this first public debate unanimously agreed
to accept the result of a free and fair election process, to cooperate with
the victorious parties, and to urge their supporters to do the same. UNTAET
radio and television broadcast the entire event live, and is scheduled to
re-broadcast segments from the debate tomorrow.
The Timorese Social Democratic Association (ASDT) was the only political
party registered in the August 30 elections not to participate in the debate.
Separately, UNTAET Radio and Television units yesterday evening broadcast
the first campaign messages recorded by political parties and independent
candidates over the weekend. The broadcast, which was produced by an
Independent Producer, is part of a broad range of initiatives being taken
by UNTAET media to afford equal access to political parties and independent
candidates registered in the 30 August Constituent Assembly elections. The
segment will be broadcast again tonight and for a total of 17.5 hours over
the rest of this week, both during the day and during prime-time slots.
MEETINGS SCHEDULED TO DISCUSS TIMOR SEA ARRANGEMENT
An East Timor Transitional Administration delegation is scheduled to begin
meeting with Australian officials and oil company representatives tomorrow,
18 July, to discuss outstanding fiscal issues relating to the recently
initialed Timor Sea Arrangement.
The meetings will be held in Darwin, Australia, from 18-20 July and will
focus on East Timor_s new tax guidelines and prospective prices for natural
gas.
Former Cabinet Member for Economic Affairs Mari Alkatiri and Cabinet Member
for Finance Michael Francino will attend the meetings, along with
Australian officials from the Ministry of Industry, Science and Resources.
Representatives from Woodside Energy and Phillips Oil _ companies with
investments in the area covered by the Timor Sea Arrangement _ will meet
with the delegations on Friday.
Under the Timor Sea Arrangement initialed by the East Timor Transitional
Administration and the Australian Government in Dili on July 5, East Timor
will receive 90 per cent of the revenues from the oil and gas reserves,
estimated to total between US$4-5 billion over a 20-year period.
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