Subject: AFP: UN to open first voter registration
office in Timor Monday
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 10:45:07 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
UN to open first voter registration office in Timor Monday
DILI, East Timor, June 11 (AFP) - The United Nations will next week open its first
voter registation office in East Timor ahead of a ballot on self-determination for the
former Portuguese colony, a UN spokesman said here.
The Dili registration office would "officially be opened Monday," said David
Wimhurst, spokesman for the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) which will
monitor the vote.
But he added it was unclear when registration would actually be able to start at the
office, the first of eight planned registration centers throughout the territory to be
opened before the August 8 ballot.
Wimhurst also said UNAMET head Ian Martin had found that "conditions do not exist
yet for a secure campaign" in the western town of Maliana which he had visted on
Thursday.
Some of the most serious reports of intimidation received by the United Nations had
come from the Maliano area, he said.
Wimhurst also said that on Sunday night UNAMET planned to begin the first of its
planned series of regular broadcasts to the people of East Timor informing them of their
rights under the act of free choice.
Indonesia, which invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it a year later in a move never
recognized by the United Nations, agreed in May to hold a ballot on August 8 on whether
the territory's people accept or reject an autonomy offer.
Indonesian President B.J. Habibie said in January that if the offer is rejected it will
consider letting go of the territory. But since then violence between pro- and
anti-independence supporters has spiralled with most of the blame laid on Indonesian
military-backed militia.
Back to June Menu
Human Rights Violations in East Timor
Main Postings Menu
June '98 through February '99 |
