The UN Security Council endorsed on Wednesday the May 20 date East Timorese have set for independence and said some 5,000 peacekeepers and other UN personnel would stay in the territory until then.
The council, in a formal statement, agreed to maintain soldiers, civilians and police trainers in East Timor between six months and two years after independence.
But some members during an all-day debate chaired by Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, weighed how much cash would be available after May 20, the independence date set by East Timorese, for the current complement of UN personnel.
East Timor has been under UN administration since late 1999, following 24 years of often-brutal occupation by Indonesia, preceded by four centuries of Portuguese colonial rule.
An August 1999 UN-organized independence vote resulted in a scorched-earth campaign by Indonesian-army backed militia that left East Timor, which shares an island with Jakarta-run West Timor, in ruins. Australian troops halted the rampage.
Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN administrator in East Timor, pleaded for the council to stand by the territory for some time after independence, particularly in funding about 100 technical UN 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 to be held in March or April and acknowledged that the Sept. 11 attacks against the US and the subsequent war in Afghanistan might divert funds from East Timor.
"We are concerned that not only attention but resources would now be channeled almost exclusively to Central Asia," he said. "I can only say `do not forgot East Timor.'"
Mari Alkatiri, chief minister of East Timor's recently elected assembly, said his country needed UN funds as well as bilateral and World Bank aid to build a viable administration for the impoverished nation for some time to come.
With unemployment up to 80 percent, he said "it is critical that we create the necessary conditions to stimulate domestic private sector activity and attract sound foreign investment."
But France's UN ambassador, Jean-David Levitte, again said council funding should be cut for civilian staff after independence by letting the 189-member General Assembly assume the responsibility. Most diplomats, however, believe the assembly has no provisions or funds for such a venture.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose report was endorsed by the council, said earlier this month the current complement of nearly 9,000 UN peacekeepers would be cut to 5,000 by independence. Civilian staff would be reduced from some 550 to about 100 by May.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS