Dili – The UN mission in East Timor (UNAMET) has opened four voter registration centres for the UN-monitored vote on the future of the territory and four more will be opened by the end of the week, a spokesman said Monday.
"We have now people staffing offices in Dili, Baucau, Suai and Same, and we have teams going out to Viqueque, Los Palos and Ermera to staff those centres and later this week Oecussi and Maliana will also be staffed," UNAMET spokesman David Wimhurst said.
The eight centers will carry out voter registration for the August 8 poll when East Timorese will choose between autonomy under Indonesia or independence.
UNAMET was deployed following agreement on the autonomy package signed by Indonesia and Portugal at the United Nations in New York on May 5.
The deal specifies that those aged 17 years and above, who have at least one East Timorese parent, or settlers married to East Timorese will be able to vote.
UN teams, which will later include 274 unarmed civilian police, will be helped by up to 4,000 locally hired personnel.
Wimhurst said the special envoy of the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Jamsheed Marker was expected to arrive in East Timor on Thursday for a two-day visit.
Marker was Monday scheduled to hold separate meetings in Jakarta with Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, military chief General Wiranto and President B.J. Habibie.
Marker will also meet with jailed East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao at the Jakarta house where he is detained.
Wimhurst said there was still no confirmation on when the first contingent of UN volunteer poll experts will begin arriving in East Timor. They had been initially due to arrive on Saturday after being briefed in Darwin, Northern Australia.
Some 274 UN civilian police from several countries are also due to be deployed to assist and advise the Indonesian police in assuring security ahead of the polls.
Staff Sergeant Larry Busch of the Royal Canadian Mounted police, along with another Canadian, an Australian and a New Zealander are conducting training for the police in Darwin prior to their development in East Timor.
Busch told AFP by telephone from the Royal Australian Air Force base in Darwin where the training is conducted that the briefing took about five days. "They are pretty well briefed, by the time they leave here they are ready," Busch said.
He said the training involved driving practice in the bush, briefings on the electoral process, an extensive background on the entire situation, the history of the territory, the evolution of the situation "and the kind of problems that they can expect on the ground when they get there."