Subject: AU: UN backs Australian plan for bigger
East Timor force
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 12:15:00 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
The Australian 9 August 99
UN backs Australian plan for bigger East Timor force
>From AFP
The UN will press Indonesia to accept Australian proposals to boost the international
security force in East Timor after this month's scheduled independence ballot, officials
have said.
The proposals would mean doubling the existing UN police force with an extra 200 to 300
officers and raising the military strength from 50 advisers to between 250 and 350.
Officials in Canberra confirmed a report that Australia had won the backing of key UN
members, including the US, for its proposals after weeks of talks at UN headquarters in
New York.
Australia is expected to provide up to a third of the extra forces, which would be in
place by the ballot. The Indonesian Government is understood to have tacitly approved the
plan after being convinced of its merits during talks in Jakarta with Alexander Downer.
The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, argued the UN force would have to be beefed up
after the ballot in order to fulfil its Security Council mandate to advise local security
forces and oversee Indonesian efforts to maintain peace.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it the following year. The UN has
never recognised the move.
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