EU committed to humanitarian, reconstruction aid to East Timor - Patten

05/10/2000 Agence France-Presse

BRUSSELS, May 1) (AFP) - The European Union is committed to delivering humanitarian and reconstruction aid to war-ravaged East Timor , Chris Patten, commission for external affairs, said Wednesday.

"We've got two commitments in East Timor ," he told a press conference.

The commitment was "not only to delivery humanitarian assistance, but also a 10 million euro (dollar) grant to the UNTAET administration," he said, referring to the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor .

"Secondly," he said, "we are committed ... to 20 million euro a year for three years for reconstruction. We have made budgetary provision for that," he said, "providing we get a year by year agreement on the budget we asked for."

East Timor is on its way toward full independence after voting in August 1999 to break away from a quarter century of Indonesian rule.

The independence vote provoked an orgy of violence by pro- Indonesia militias that left hundreds killed and much of East Timor 's infrastructure laid to waste.

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