AP News, February 23rd, 2007
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to extend the U.N. mission in East Timor for a year and beef up the international police force ahead of upcoming elections.
Last week, East Timor's Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta urged the council to extend the mission in his volatile country for one year, saying the next months will be critical as the Pacific nation prepares for its first national elections on April 9.
The council responded Thursday by extending the mission until Feb. 26, 2008 and authorizing an additional 140 police to supplement the current force "particularly during the pre- and postelection period." The mission currently has about 1,300 international police.
East Timor, a tiny nation which broke from Indonesia in 1999 after 24 years of occupation, was plunged into crisis last April and May when factional fighting broke out between police and army forces. The clashes spilled onto the streets, where looting, arson and gang warfare left at least 37 dead and sent 155,000 people fleeing their homes.
Relative calm was restored with the arrival of more than 2,500 foreign peacekeepers and the installation of a new government led by Ramos-Horta, but dozens of people have been killed in recent months primarily in fighting by rival gangs.
The Security Council said the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections "will be a significant step in the process of strengthening democracy in East Timor."
It encouraged all Timorese "to ensure that free, fair and peaceful elections take place and that the timetable for polls developed by the National Commission on Elections is respected."
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and ruled the tiny half-island territory until 1999, when a U.N.-organized plebiscite resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence. Withdrawing Indonesian troops and their militia auxiliaries destroyed much of the country's infrastructure and killed at least 1,500 people.
The United Nations sent a U.N. peacekeeping force and administered the territory for 2 1/2 years, then handed it to the Timorese on May 20, 2002.
