YouSaid · the spoken record

Vieira De Mello

lines on the record: 513
first: 1999-01-21
most recent: 2003-07-22
sittings or episodes: 16
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“There is still a way to go, and over the next few months and years capacity-building must remain our main endeavour and highest priority. Capacity-building has proved both frustrating and difficult in the past, and we at the United Nations have too often looked for managers rather than mentors, who have thus not seen the need to deliver in this vital area of skills transfer. UNDP has done excellent work in this field, and I would like to commend it on its recent very comprehensive report on this subject and on the long-term plan that it contained. All of East Timor's development partners will do well to support this plan over the next few years.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“My plans for this will lead me to discuss also the question of the follow- on mission and the sensitive but increasingly urgent task of what we call "managing expectations". In public administration it is my intention to follow much the same pattern as in the political transition. In other words, I want to spend the time that we have between now and independence bringing the international component of the public administration down to a size and a shape that will allow a seamless transfer of power to a national structure that is credible, effective and adequately staffed. This public administration will be one that East Timor can afford, using technology that is sustainable, and one that will serve the people while eschewing the risks of corruption, nepotism and cronyism.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“The budget provided at Canberra, of $65 million, was, I believe, neither lavish nor imprudent. It was the product of a very bruising and difficult, as well as very democratic, process. It was, like all budgets, a compromise - a compromise between the need for fiscal sustainability, economic good sense and aid dependency, on the one hand, and the clear and desperate needs of the people of East Timor, on the other. However, I share with many members concern about the medium-term viability of a budget that is already dependent on $20 million a year in aid money just to keep running the basic operations of Government. The last on my list of essential objectives was the transfer of the existing public service architecture to an East Timorese public administration.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“While I shall continue to retain the authority the Council has vested in me as the Secretary-General's Special Representative and Transitional Administrator, following the elections it is clearly appropriate to move to a further stage of what we call Timorization. This, I agree, is an ugly word that, I regret, has entered into common usage. Behind it, however, lies the basic guideline that has underpinned this mission from the early months of last year: you cannot prepare a people for self-government without first exposing them to experience of government. Any other approach would simply not work. I know that, following the successful donor conference in Canberra last month, many in the Council are keenly and, dare I say it, critically looking at our plans in the area of public finances.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“This modified Cabinet will continue to exercise executive authority and develop draft legislation, most of which, apart from urgent business, will await referral to the new Assembly. Following the elections, I intend to appoint an expanded Cabinet that will reflect the outcome of the ballot. The new all-Timorese transitional Government will head a reorganized Transitional Administration that will more closely reflect the anticipated portfolio responsibilities of the future independent Government. This will entail perhaps the most exciting qualitative leap forward in the process of handing over the reins of Government to the East Timorese from the international community: a process that the Council called on UNTAET to carry out to the utmost in its resolution 1338 (2001) last January.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“There is still some disquiet among much of the population because of concerns that the political process may lead to civil unrest and violence. But both East Timor's leadership and we have made it absolutely clear that politically motivated violence in the territory will not be tolerated. At the beginning of this month, to reinforce that point, 14 of the 16 parties competing in the election signed a pact of national unity, witnessed by both Jose Ramos-Horta and myself, among others, which demonstrates unequivocally their commitment to peaceful, non-violent and mature - I repeat, mature - democratic competition. As has been mentioned in the report of the Secretary-General, those members of the transitional Cabinet who wished to take part in the election campaign have resigned and have been replaced by their civil service deputies.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“A multi-party political process is now under way, and campaigning has begun. I am very happy to tell the Council that our efforts to encourage women's participation in the political process have truly borne fruit. No fewer than 268 women candidates will be standing in the election, out of a total of 992 candidates, and I expect a substantial number to be elected; indeed, I very much hope that that will be the case. We have also found a way, with the generous and timely support of Member States, to offer campaign help to the political parties, which will be of particular assistance to the smaller and less well funded among them. It will not be in cash, and it will not be enough- it never is - but it will assist the democratic process to take root in a country that has never before been afforded this basic right.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“To do this, we need to address four major objectives: first, consolidate the secure and stable environment that presently exists; secondly, steer East Timor through the creation of democratic institutions and successful, peaceful elections; thirdly, put in place the building blocks for the management of public finances and policy-making; and fourthly, establish the framework for a sustainable and effective Government administration. These four broad objectives support the goal of handing over a secure, stable and working Government to the people of East Timor. I believe that we are on track with the process of political transition. We are producing a voters' roll, which is being developed from the successfully completed civil registration process. Elections will go ahead on 30 August.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“A second transitional Government will be put into place, and East Timor will soon thereafter become the first new nation of the millennium. This Council can afford to be proud of the consistent help and guidance it has given us during this critical and often difficult period, and I want to thank it for that. But much still needs to be done, and in his report to the Council, the Secretary-General has indicated that some of the tasks will be completed only after the formal date of East Timor's independence. My overriding priority now is to ensure that the United Nations is positioned to complete the job it has been set by the Council, as quickly as is sensible and as economically as is prudent.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“We started, quite literally, from nothing and - because we had never done this before - through feeling our way carefully, we have come a long way towards preparing East Timor for that ultimate goal: independence. That end is now in sight. But my message to the Council today is that while we have indeed come a long way on an extraordinary adventure, we nonetheless have much further to go if East Timor is to be able truly and fully to benefit from its independence. Now is not the time for complacency, but a time to buckle down and complete the mandate the Council gave us to the very best of our ability. Elections will take place in exactly a month's time. A Constituent Assembly will be convened on the basis of the outcome of that ballot.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“As I have told the Council before, however, the mandate with which we were entrusted in East Timor was much more than a list of tasks, much more than a catalogue of problems to be solved. It was nothing less than to work with the traumatized and brutalized people of East Timor and, together, to create an independent sovereign State. I have often commented on the uniqueness of the operation in East Timor. I do so not because I wish to make excuses for any of our failings, but because we are all engaged in something truly historic, and we need to constantly remind ourselves of that fact and of where we started. Never before has the international community banded together and embarked on such a noble venture from such a bleak beginning.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“Pires is here in New York as a guest of the United Nations Development Programme and the timing of her visit is particularly fortuitous, as she headed our initial planning exercise for the possible design of a successor mission in East Timor, a subject I shall focus on at some length today. It has been six months since I last visited New York and spoke to the Council. As members have read in the report of the Secretary-General, much has happened in East Timor since then. Many of the projects that I outlined six months ago have come to fruition thanks to resolution 1338 (2001), which this Council adopted after the last open debate in January, while many more are on the way.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“Though, in East Timor, we may be nearly as far away from this Chamber as it is possible to be, through the intense interest and support of the Council's members we are continually reassured that we are never far away from their minds. Before I begin my presentation proper, allow me to introduce - though it always seems somewhat foolish to introduce one so well known to all Council members - our Cabinet Member for Foreign Affairs, Jose' Ramos-Horta. Also, and she is perhaps less well known to the Council now, may I take the opportunity of introducing Mrs. Emilia Pires, Director of the East Timor National Planning and Development Agency. Mrs.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“Mr. Vieira de Mello: It is a great pleasure and an honour to appear before the Council today and to have the opportunity to brief it once again on the latest situation in East Timor and our plans for the future at this critical stage in the transition process. It is a particular pleasure to make this presentation under the presidency of China, which has been such a stalwart friend to the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and to East Timor since the very beginning of this daunting enterprise. Indeed, the entire Council, having set us this mammoth undertaking, has never shirked from its full responsibility to ensure that this mission is a success.”
2001-07-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4351 (2001) · source
“I am sorry that I have not answered them all, but it is very late and I thought I should address only those that were particularly salient or relevant to the remainder of this transition. Once again, I thank members wholeheartedly for allowing us to take the floor perhaps more extensively than would have otherwise been the case.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“As I see it, one problem could arise if the Constituent Assembly, as I said this morning, also exercises legislative power before independence. Depending on the length of time until independence and the scope of these powers, it is clear that we will need, and I will need, to apply operative paragraph 1 of resolution 1272 (1999) with a degree of flexibility and a lot of tact and balance, which states that the Transitional Administration will be empowered to exercise all legislative and executive authority, including the administration of justice. Clearly, with regard to legislative power, we must strike a balance with this new Constituent Assembly, if, I repeat, it is to exercise legislative power before independence. (spoke in English) This concludes my remarks and replies to some of the questions.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“As far as the other two questions that were put to me - how, after the holding of elections, I see the relationship between UNTAET and the Constituent Assembly and how we might need to change the way UNTAET functions - let me say first that all Timorese political leaders in have very clearly stated that they will recognize unreservedly that the United Nations continues to exercise administration over the territory up until independence. Therefore, my role is that of a transitional administrator. I think I said this morning that a new Cabinet reflecting the results of the election will be appointed after the elections for the Constituent Assembly, which should facilitate the interfacing ofthe executive with the legislative.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“Finally, we are also hopeful that in the bilateral negotiations on 30 and 31 January the question of pensions for East Timorese refugees who find themselves in Indonesia at present and who were civil servants under the Indonesian administration will be satisfactorily resolved. That would be a very powerful incentive for them to return home. (spoke in French) I will end by responding to the questions put to me by Ambassador Levitte. With regard to the adequacy of UNTAET's means in relation to the situation on the ground over the next few months, he asked us whether any assessments could be presented within three months. My response is yes, of course, we can do this without any difficulty because we had planned to provide regular assessments, particularly with regard to the military force.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“We have been discussing with the Indonesian authorities a new strategy to counter this disinformation campaign in the refugee settlements in West Timor, and we are very much counting on the Indonesian police and the Indonesian army to help us spread objective and true information on the situation in East Timor. We have also agreed recently that we will again be inviting the Indonesian media, from Jakarta and Bali, but also from Kupang in West Timor, to visit us and move around the country freely, as they have done in the past, so as to relay a more accurate picture of the situation in East Timor to public opinion and the refugees in the West.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“We did the same with the Director-General of Political Affairs in the Indonesian Foreign Ministry and with the head of an inter-agency task force of the Indonesian Government, who has visited us in Dili twice in recent weeks. I do hope that, with a stronger and better coordinated implementation of some of these ideas, we will finally manage to address and resolve the remaining refugee challenge in West Timor. As far as disinformation is concerned, Ambassador Wibisono is right in saying that rumours are spread in West Timor that create artificial fear in the minds of the refugee population as to how they would be treated if they decided to return to West Timor.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“We know them and I believe they can be neutralized through peaceful means, but also, if necessary, using our very strong civilian police and military presence on the ground. On refugees, many questions have been raised. I will not try to answer them all. Ambassador Wibisono partly answered those questions, as far as the Indonesian Government is concerned, and we fully support the policies of the Indonesian Government on this question. Many initiatives have been taken jointly with the Indonesian authorities in recent months. I will not enumerate them again, because time is very short. I mentioned a few in my presentation here this morning. I also told the Council that I discussed some ideas with the new regional military commander, General Da Costa, only three days ago in Denpasar.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“Ramos-Horta referred this morning - and a code of conduct for political parties, as well as through the civic education campaign, which will be launched and integrated into the electoral registration exercise and will use the infrastructure that will be put in place for the electoral registration process, we will be able to contain any potential violence in the coming months. The East Timorese people are highly disciplined, as we have remarked over the years and since our arrival in East Timor, and they are determined to reject violence. They have acquired one fundamental right, which is to live in peace, and they will exercise that right. Moreover, the groups that might be at the source of this violence are very small.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“In the remainder of the transition and beyond independence, this should be a very important mechanism to satisfy the Timorese population that justice is being addressed to their satisfaction. On the question of civic education that was put to me by Ambassador Valdivieso of Colombia, I think Jose' Ramos-Horta has already clarified that incidents of a political character have been very few indeed. It is our hope that, through the adoption of the regulation on political parties, the regulation on elections for the constituent assembly, the pact on national unity - to which Mr.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“We can do this not only through the consolidation of the new East Timorese judiciary, and in particular the Special Panel For Serious Crimes that has been created in the Dili district court, but also, I should point out, through the creation - which has now been approved by East Timorese civil society at large - of a truth and reconciliation commission. This is a very important step forward, particularly for crimes that do not fall into the category of serious crimes. We are working hard on the drafting of the regulations for the establishment of this commission and I am hopeful that, by March, it will be functioning, not only in Dili, but also in five subregions, as it were.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“But our paper has been recirculated by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to the members of this Council, as well as to troop contributors, and I know that the Department will be organizing very soon - next week, I understand - a technical meeting with permanent missions here in New York to try to explore with them additional urgent support in response to our request, mainly in terms of investigative personnel. That is what we need 4 competent, trained human resources to help the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit complete investigations that have been outstanding for too long. On justice at large, the representative of the United States also asked me how we could ensure that this process continues beyond independence.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“This is why we have agreed in recent months that this should be the focus of our attention for the remainder of the transitional period. This is due to many reasons that I will not enumerate here, but that I am sure members of the Security Council are aware of. On the question of the judiciary, the representative of the United Kingdom also asked me what had been the international response to the appeal we circulated here in late November. Well, it has been limited; in fact, only the United Kingdom has made an offer of financial support.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“However, as I stated in my presentation, this new police force will not be fully trained and fully deployed before the year 2004. On the question of Timorization, the representative of the United Kingdom asked me how we could improve it in qualitative rather than quantitative terms. Let me say that the assessment I can make today is that Timorization has been excellent at the top of the executive echelons, as well as in the proto-legislative that we have established. It has been fair at the lower levels of the executive structure, the new East Timorese civil service, as well as in the judiciary. It has been poor in the senior levels of the new civil service, which obviously are crucial for the long-term success of our endeavours in East Timor.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“As a matter of fact, I think it is one of the areas in which UNTAET has been particularly successful, not only numerically speaking, but also in terms of high quality and the degree of commitment of the new East Timorese police cadets. I should also note that, so far, 32 per cent of recruits into the East Timor police force have been women. The figures for February 2001 will be 300 Timorese police officers, in various stages of training, in the streets of East Timor. As of February 2001, a minimum of 100 police officers will graduate from the police academy each month, which will take us by June to 800 police officers and another 200 in the academy undergoing training. By December this year, the number of East Timorese policemen and policewomen in the streets of East Timor will have increased to 1,400.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“As far as civilian police is concerned, the United States representative requested my comments on the suggestions made by Jose' Ramos-Horta on the use of national contingents. As I said this morning, our colleagues in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations are looking into this question. I have made similar recommendations to New York and I believe we can find a new formula that will improve considerably the performance of the international civilian police component in East Timor. I was also requested to provide the Council with my own assessment of the results of the Timorese police training so far. My assessment is very positive.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“Some members- in particular, China- have requested us to submit an in-depth study and detailed proposals, which I am sure the Secretary- General will agree to do in the not-too-distant future, on his proposed structure and on the proposed functions and mandate of this follow-on, integrated United Nations mission in East Timor; and this will also outline the role of other United Nations agencies, not least the United Nations Development Programme. I am also grateful for statements made by different speakers, including the President of the General Assembly, on the question of flexibility in the use of assessed contributions in East Timor for the building of this new governmental structure. On the question of security, I am grateful for the support we have received in the establishment of the new East Timor Defence Force.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“But, perhaps more importantly, this was a message of hope to the East Timorese population large. This has been a truly exceptional debate, and I wish to thank you personally, Mr. President, as well as your staff and your Government, for the investment of energy, time and commitment that I know you have made in the cause of East Timor. On the question of the post-independence presence, most speakers, including you, Sir, have assured us that they wish the United Nations to remain involved and to continue to play a strong support role after East Timor becomes independent. This is of great importance to the Timorese people and the Timorese leadership. I cannot overstate the importance of this message.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“Mr. Vieira de Mello: I should like to express, on behalf of Mr. Jose Ramos-Horta and on my own behalf, our gratitude for the unanimous support - I think I can use those words - for our mission and for the Secretary-General's recommendations, contained in the "Observations" section of his report to the Security Council, including those relating to the extension of the mandate of our mission until the end of this year. This support will act as a very powerful incentive and encouragement to my colleagues in East Timor - East Timorese and international colleagues alike, those from the various United Nations agencies and the non- governmental community, which continues to play a crucial role in the reconstruction effort- as well as those here in the Secretariat.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265Resumption1 (2001) · source
“It is vital that after UNTAET - after everything that all of us here have invested in this endeavour-we continue to remain engaged in nurturing this process for East Timor so that it will become what we all wish it to be: a factor for political, social and economic progress and stability in the region as a whole.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“I know my colleagues in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations are reflecting on this subject. To conclude, UNTAET will be judged not just on how many schools it rebuilds or roofs it replaces, on the calibre of the elections it organizes or on the peace it maintains, vital though these achievements are. Rather, judgement will also rest on how successfully UNTAET is able to assist the East Timorese in fully realizing their independence as masters of their own future and their own democratic and independent State. Independence, of course, is much more than a political state of being; the East Timorese have shown, more effectively than many, that they have always been independent in mind and spirit. But it is also a process, of which UNTAET is only a part.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“The international civilian police will therefore need to continue to carry out their current mandate of performing law enforcement functions and providing training to East Timorese law enforcement officers until that time, albeit in gradually diminishing numbers. In this connection, it might perhaps be worth mentioning concerns over the manner in which we deploy and use our civilian police resources in peacekeeping operations of this sort-operations in which they have executive policing responsibilities. Based on my experiences in both Kosovo and East Timor, I am increasingly of the view that the effectiveness of civilian police in these complex operations is not being maximized and that the time has come when we must consider ways to reform current practice.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“I cannot stress enough - and perhaps Jose Ramos-Horta will have more to say on this point, because he has just Visited Jakarta - that East Timor's greatest hope for a stable future is a secure land border with Indonesia, as well as a framework for lasting and friendly bilateral relations with that neighbour. Without these foundations of territorial security, East Timor will continue to have to divert scarce resources away from much more critical tasks. In the area of law enforcement, too, we expect that international assistance will be required well beyond the end of this year. Even after having put in place measures to speed up the training of East Timorese police, we estimate that this service will not be able to operate on its own until late 2004.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“This is a precondition for East Timor's security - and, consequently, our ability to downsize our peacekeeping force- as well as for humanitarian and other international staff to return to West Timor and for the remaining refugees freely to decide whether or not to return home. Moreover, in line with the Security Council mission's call for steps to be taken to ensure the effective functioning of bilateral mechanisms, negotiations on issues arising from the Indonesian transfer of its control of East Timor and the first full meeting of the Joint Border Committee are both scheduled to take place in the next few days - to be precise, on 30 and 31 January. We hope for and expect concrete progress in these talks.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“Moreover, militia infiltration from West to East Timor has fallen off, due largely to the robust actions of cur military in September, October and November of last year, and the onset ofthe rainy season. But the Indonesian military have also been taking steps on the other side of the border. I personally welcome the firm stance adopted by the new Indonesian regional military commander, Major- General Willem da Costa, with whom I had a productive meeting two days ago in Denpasar, and I very much hope that this will lead to drastic and durable change on the ground, including through the comprehensive grounding of all remaining militias.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“Some of the recommendations made by the Security Council mission that visited East Timor and Indonesia in November have been taken up by the Indonesian Government. Trials have started in Jakarta of individuals accused of inciting and perpetrating the killings in Atambua on 6 September ofthree colleagues from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Two leading militia commanders, including the primary suspect in the killing of two of our soldiers in late July and early August last year, are now in detention. This coming February, the Indonesian Attorney-General, Marzuki Darusman, expects the new Human Rights Court to begin processing the first cases against members of the military, as well as against the police, militia members and the former civil administration of East Timor.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“Among the various initiatives sponsored by the Indonesian Government and UNTAET since November have been further "go-and-see" visits, as we call them, East Timor by pro-autonomy leaders and ordinary refugees from the west, as well as a meeting in Denpasar between the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) and other East Timorese, on the one hand, and the pro-autonomy umbrella group known as Unit Timor Aswain UNTAS on the other. We hope that these will eventually produce significant refugee returns. Nonetheless, one year since we made our first overture to the pro-integration leaders, we continue to await true dividends. It is therefore with a sense of realism that we continue to seek a constructive solution to this problem.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“At least until then, therefore, there will have to be a continued-possibly significant-international peacekeeping presence. In addition, the security situation, particularly in the border areas, will also influence the pace of our downsizing. There have been a number of hopeful developments on the security front since the Security Council's mission in November. There has continued to be some, although not enough, progress on reconciliation.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“Since I spoke to the Council in November, just after a defence donors' conference had taken place in Dili, the process of creating an East Timor Defence Force has taken several important steps forward. Draft defence legislation is close to completion, and recruitment is under way. In the next few days, possibly on 1 February, the guerrilla force - Armed Forces for the National Liberation of East Timor (FALINTIL) - will cease to exist, and will be replaced by the new Defence Force, of which FALINTIL will form the core. Training ofthe first 600- man battalion will then begin, and is expected to be completed by the end of this year. This is a historic new beginning. However, the force is not expected to be at its full strength of 1,500 regulars and 1,500 reservists until two to three years hence.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“To augment that pool, we continue to reach out, though with only limited success, to the diaspora. That pool is also rapidly being transformed as increasing numbers of East Timorese rise to the on-the-job challenges posed by Timorization and by the opening of the University of East Timor and other tertiary institutions, as well as by the fact that we have recently recruited civil servants who are now taking Government training courses and the fact that hundreds of students are going abroad on scholarships, particularly to Indonesia. Two areas where resource gaps can already be reasonably precisely identified are those of security and law enforcement.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“As a matter of fact, I even read this morning that the first sentence was passed, ifI am not mistaken, by the court in Baucau, also on a crime against humanity. But this process desperately needs an urgent injection of additional resources. Already, the target number of investigations established by the Serious Crimes Investigation Unit imposes practical limitations on the number of cases to be tried. We cannot risk leaving the public demand for justice dangerously unsatisfied by imposing further cutbacks on our goals in this area. The East Timorese skills base is changing fast, and that is yet another reason why it is difficult to be precise about East Timor's future needs. There is already intense competition for the services of the limited pool of East Timorese.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“In my last briefing to the Security Council - echoing the concerns of the report of the Security Council mission- I highlighted the resource constraints besetting the justice sector, particularly in the key area of investigations into serious crimes committed in the period surrounding the popular consultation of August 1999. At that time I made an appeal to the Council for additional resources - an appeal I make again today. We continue to endure a parlous situation, in which the lack of even translators forces delays to trials. This is not to say that progress has not been made for prosecutions of defendants charged with serious crimes; the first indictment for crimes against humanity was filed on 11 December.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“As regards the latter, while it is not possible at this stage to make firm estimates, what we do know is that the petroleum to which East Timor is entitled will, before not too long, generate revenues in multiples of East Timor's current budget. The negotiations on this issue with Australia are thus of paramount importance in determining the extent of East Timor's future fiscal independence. I am optimistic that an agreement may be reached in the not too distant future on many of the complex issues involved here. Thirdly, as will be its prerogative, the elected Government of an independent East Timor could well decide on significant changes of policy that will require a reassessment of the skills and personnel needed by individual departments and government agencies after independence. One area worth highlighting is justice.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“Consequently, it is particularly appropriate that both the United Nations Development Programme - on behalf of all the agencies, who have been so central to reconstruction and rehabilitation in all sectors - and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will be taking the floor here today in this debate. However, precise details are not yet possible. There are a number of reasons for this uncertainty. First, as I have already pointed out, the political timetable, including the date of independence, has still to be finally determined. Secondly, the level of economic and social development that can be sustained depends crucially on the budgetary resources that will be available to an independent East Timor - particularly those that will be generated by foreign investment, as well as from oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“Coordination will be needed within and between the United Nations and its agencies; the international financial institutions; the donors; you, the Security Council; and, of course, the East Timorese as the major stakeholders. It is worth highlighting at this juncture - because I think it is not highlighted enough - that one of the successes of UNTAET has been the remarkable level of cooperation and team-playing that has existed between all of the above, and how through this cooperation the whole leas been much greater than the sum of its parts. We are all engaged in trying to achieve the same objective, and that unity has shone through in our work.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“Here again, we will need to concentrate our efforts beyond independence. In his observations, the Secretary-General laid out our initial thinking on life after UNTAET and the need for a seamless transition to its successor mission. More work is being done to develop a fully fleshed-out proposal. We intend to have this prepared in time for the next donors conference in Canberra this coming June and to be able to discuss this with the Council in detail at the time of the Secretary-General's next scheduled report to the Council on East Timor - or at any other time that the Council may determine. In preparing for this mission, coordination will be key if the mission is to be fully integrated and competition, duplication and confusion avoided.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source
“For example, the Department of Infrastructure believes that while it will be possible to develop fully Timorized water and port services relatively quickly, the skills needed to run a modern telecommunications system will take longer to learn, and continued international support will be required in the interim. Or take as yet another example, the dearth of lawyers that has been one of many legacies left East Timor by its recent history. Efforts to establish a judicial system have already been significant, but they still only scratch the surface, as the Security Council mission itself noted. Or border control. While an East Timor Border Service has been created, it is still in its infancy, and East Timor's already meagre coffers continue to miss out on significant taxes due to smuggling of goods across the border with West Timor.”
2001-01-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4265 (2001) · source