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Annan sends seasoned envoy to Timor-Leste following mob violence

25 May 2006 – Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending a senior envoy who is an expert on Timor-Leste to assess the situation there first hand following serious unrest after a large portion of the national army was recently dismissed in the country which the United Nations shepherded to independence from Indonesia in 2002.

Concerned over the developments, Mr. Annan today telephoned regional leaders including President Xanana Gusmao and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri of Timor Leste, as well as Prime Ministers John Howard of Australia and Abdullah Badawi of Malaysia, who have committed to send forces to help restore stability, a UN spokesman said.

He is also consulting with the governments of New Zealand and Portugal, the former colonial power.

“In view of the deteriorating security and complex political situation, the Secretary-General has decided to send Ian Martin, head of the UN Human Rights Mission in Nepal, to Dili (Timor Leste’s capital) to assess the situation first hand,” the spokesman said.

Mr. Martin was Mr. Annan’s Special Representative in East Timor in 1999, as it was called then, when it voted for independence from Indonesia, which occupied the country after Portugal left in 1974.

The Security Council yesterday appealed to all parties in Timor-Leste to put an end to the violence and to participate in the democratic process, respecting human rights and refraining from any intimidation.

In a press statement read out by the Council President for May, Ambaasdor Basile Ikouebe of the Republic of Congo, the 15-member body expressed its “full understanding” for the Government’s request for Portuguese, Australian, New Zealand and Malaysian security forces to help restore order and appreciated those countries’ initial favourable responses.

Five people were reported killed and 60 injured in violence at the end of April after the army dismissals, and earlier this month the Council extended the mandate of the UN office in Timor-Leste (UNOTIL) for another month past its 20 May expiration.