18 June 1999

Bonn, Germany: The first of some 400 polling officers recruited by the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) were fielded this week to help prepare East Timor's "popular consultation", a ballot scheduled for August which is to decide on the territory's special autonomy or separation from Indonesia.

The rest of the short-term UN Volunteers, representing some 50 nationalities, are to arrive in East Timor by the end of June after completing five days of electoral training at an airforce base in Darwin, Australia. Ten UNV physicians and 10 laboratory technicians will accompany the UNV polling officers.

UN Volunteers are being sent for a two-month term of service in compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1246 of 11 June, which establishes the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET). The Mission's mandate expires on 31 August 1999.

UNAMET is to organize and conduct a popular consultation, which, in a secret ballot, will determine if the East Timorese people accept a proposed constitutional framework providing the territory with special autonomy or reject it, in which case Indonesia will take steps to grant East Timor independence.

Working under the supervision of the Chief Electoral Officer in Dili, UNV polling officers will assist with voter registration, maintain election records and select and supervise local staff. The international UNVs, who have at least three years experience with electoral operations, are to be deployed in groups throughout the territory by early July.

Organizing and observing elections has been a key area of work for UN Volunteers since the early 1990s. More than 5,000 professional electoral observers have been recruited by the Bonn-based UNV programme to provide electoral assistance in Cambodia, Mozambique, South Africa, Haiti, Liberia, the Central African Republic, Bosnia, Nigeria, Nepal and most recently in Indonesia. They have represented the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the European Union.

Read UN Security Council Resolution 1246 (1999) at:
www.un.org/News/Press/docs/1999/19990611.sc6689.html

22 June, 1999 - Press Briefing (UN Web Site)