Global Policy Forum

by Evelyn Leopold

EAST Timor's newly elected constituent assembly asked the UN yesterday to grant it independence next May 20, paving the way for a reduction of UN military and civilian forces.

The world body has been administering the territory since 1998 after residents voted overwhelmingly to break from Indonesia, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975.

The president of the East Timor Constituent Assembly, Francisco Guterres, signed a resolution yesterday asking the UN to "hand over sovereignty to elected Timorese government institutions on May 20, 2002", UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. The UN Security Council is expected to approve the date by month's end.

In the East Timor capital of Dili, the 88-member assembly, which will form the country's new parliament, selected the date because it is the 28th anniversary of the founding of East Timor's first political party, the Timorese Social Democratic Association.

That group gave rise to Fretilin, the guerilla movement against Indonesian rule and now the territory's largest party. Fretilin won 55 assembly seats in elections held on August 30, second anniversary of the independence vote.

In a separate report, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the nearly 9000 UN peacekeepers would be cut to 5000 by independence. The 550 international staff and 600 UN volunteers have already been decreased and would be reduced 75 per cent by next May. About 1700 Australian soldiers are part of the peacekeeping team in East Timor and the plan could allow up to 40 per cent of them to return home by mid-next year.

But Mr Annan did not say exactly how many soldiers and staff from the peacekeeping effort would remain after independence, saying it depended on progress in local institutions.

"The primary focus of the successor mission will be to ensure the security of East Timor and the viability and stability of its government structures," Mr Annan said, noting the need for civilians in areas such as administration, revenue, tax policy and customs.

"The East Timorese capacity in the finance sector is rudimentary, and a stable financial management system will be critical to the survival of the future government and to ensure that donor funds are efficiently utilised," he said.

The UN, he said, had identified some "100 core functions for which local expertise does not exist but which are essential to the stability and functioning" of the country's new government. Other international civilians will be needed in areas such as sea transport, civil aviation, conservation of archives and land and property issues, he said.

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