U.S. mission in East Timor By Jan Wesner Childs
will be reviewed this month
Okinawa bureau
"Any one of three things could happen," said Navy Cmdr. Stephen Beckvonpeccoz, a spokesman for the U.S. Support Group East Timor. "The staff could grow smaller, it could stay the same, or it could grow bigger. Or the mission could go away completely."
Beckvonpeccoz is the executive officer of USGET, the small headquarters that the United States has in Dili, the East Timor capital. USGET coordinates ship visits and humanitarian aid missions in support of the U.N. peacekeeping force in East Timor.
The United States is not directly involved in the U.N. force.
There is a ship visit every month or so, and medical and dental teams visit at least once a quarter. In addition, military engineer units rotate in for 90 days at a time to repair buildings in the devastated country.
Beckvonpeccoz said those missions are scheduled to continue at least through December.
"Beyond that, I can’t give you specifics," he said.
The United States has played a supporting role in East Timor all along. In the early days of the peacekeeping mission, the United States provided communications, intelligence, airlift and other logistics support to the Australian military, which led the mission before the United Nations took over in February.
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