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Lack of UN peacekeepers worries Dili's leaders

Source
Lusa - May 19, 2005

Dili – East Timor's political and military leaders unanimously criticized Thursday the UN Security Council's decision to ignore Secretary-General Kofi Annan's recommendation that the new, pruned-back UN mission include a symbolic peacekeeping force.

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri told Lusa it was "fortunate" for Dili that the UN was maintaining for one more year a "political mission" in the country.

Alkatiri noted, however, that the Security Council's axing of a peacekeeping component in the new UNOTIL mission, which assumes it mandate Friday, would oblige his cash-strapped administration to make additional investments in its fledgling defense structures.

Annan, who had recommended that UNOTIL include a 144-strong peacekeeping unit, told the Security Council that Dili had advised it was unable to assure security for UN and other international personnel.

In comments to Lusa, Foreign Minister Josi Ramos Horta, pointing his finger at Washington, described the council's decision earlier this week as a short-sighted option to save "some more money".

"Fundamentally", Ramos Horta said, the council overrode Annan's recommendation at the insistence of those, "particularly" the United States, who wanted to "save the maximum in order to transfer savings to other concerns, such as Iraq and Afghanistan".

The chief of staff of Dili's fledgling Defense Force, Brig. Gen.

Taur Matan Ruak, echoed the preoccupations of the country's political leaders, telling Lusa the Security Council appeared to have "no notion of what it's like to have a (UN) mission in East Timor without support" of peacekeepers.

"These people", the Security Council, Gen. Matan Ruak said, "will have to assume the responsibility for that which will arise later".

Annan had warned the council that an extended UN mission without a peacekeeping component would have a "negative impact" on East Timor's security and in other key areas.

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