29 August 2001

Bonn, Germany: On the eve of East Timor's historic elections, the head of the Bonn-based United Nations Volunteers (UNV), Sharon Capeling-Alakija, commended the work of 284 United Nations Volunteers in helping prepare the polls, often under "very difficult circumstances".

"They [UN Volunteers] have been travelling the mountainous territory to reach the population in the remotest areas in order to explain the procedures of the elections and the purpose and tasks of the Constituent Assembly--often walking for hours where cars couldn't reach," she told journalists Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference in Bonn with a televised link to Berlin, she said the UN Volunteers from 65 countries had started preparing for the elections in February when a group of 130 volunteers were deployed all over the territory to begin the registration of the population.

With civil registration finished in mid-June, they joined the 120 UNV district electoral officers who had arrived in May to focus their efforts on the training of polling staff and voter education. Thirty-four other UN Volunteers are supplying logistical support to the Independent Electoral Commission of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).

Tomorrow, each of the 248 polling centres throughout the territory will be supervised by one UNV district electoral officer, along with their national counterparts.

"The cooperation in teams which are predominantly staffed by East Timorese sets tomorrow's elections apart from the 1999 referendum when preparations for the ballot were carried out almost exclusively by international UN personnel, the vast majority of whom were UN Volunteers," she said.

"It is a welcome sign of the successful transition to self-governance which the United Nations has been supporting since the vote for independence from Indonesia."

Currently, some 900 UN Volunteers are part of the United Nations efforts in the territory, she said. "As a group, the UN Volunteers seek to combine electoral assistance with human development goals. Their duties cover the whole spectrum of tasks necessary to put a country on its feet, ranging from rebuilding schools and health centres, to agricultural development and the reconstruction of a functioning infrastructure. Together, UN Volunteers constitute around 50 per cent of the international staff of the UN mission in East Timor. Their combined task is nothing less than to support the birth of a new nation. This is a noble task, and we are proud that the largest ever operation in the 30-year history of UNV is to assist the people of East Timor in their heroic effort."