Military

DATE=10/26/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N / Timor Mission (L Only)

NUMBER=2-268484

BYLINE=Breck Ardery

DATELINE=United Nations

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A delegation from the United Nations Security Council will visit East Timor and Indonesia next month. V-O-A Correspondent Breck Ardery at the United Nations reports one of the main issues will be the continued militia activity in both East and West Timor.

TEXT: The seven-member group will be led by Namibia's ambassador to the United Nations, Martin Andjaba, and will be in the region from November Ninth through the 18th. The Security Council members will get a firsthand look at the progress being made by the U-N Interim Administration in East Timor in helping to prepare for independence.

The delegation also will visit Indonesia. There, the main focus will be an evaluation of the Indonesian government's efforts to eliminate militia groups operating out of West Timor.

U-N spokesman Fred Eckhard says the delegation will be following up on a Security Council resolution that was approved last month after the murders of three U-N humanitarian workers in West Timor.

/// ECKHARD ACT ///

It calls on the Indonesian authorities to disarm and disband the militias, restore law and order in West Timor, ensure safety and security in the refugee camps there, and prevent cross-border incursions into East Timor.

/// END ACT ///

The U-N administrator in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, recently asked the Australian contingent of the peacekeeping force to step up efforts to prevent militias from crossing from West to East Timor. The militias refuse to respect last year's referendum in East Timor in which residents voted for independence from Indonesia. Mr. Vieira de Mello says there has been a growing trend of the armed groups to penetrate further into East Timor rather than the short hit-and-run attacks of the past. (Signed)

NEB/UN/BA/LSF/JWH