11 December 2001

Dili, East Timor: Mr. Claudio Magno, a local staff member of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), is about to become the first East Timorese national to represent his newly forming nation in serving the United Nations as a UN Volunteer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"I am very happy and excited to become the first Timorese to join a UN peacekeeping operation. My UNV assignment will be good for other Timorese too, as we know that many foreign people around the world came to help us, many of them also as UN Volunteers, so this will remind them about how we too can give contributions back to other countries," said Claudio when meeting today with the UNV Support Unit office in Dili just two days before his departure.

On Thursday, Claudio will embark on a long journey to Kinshasa, DR Congo, where he will serve the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission, MONUC, as a UNV Force Vehicle Inventory Assistant. "He will be joining a team of 140 UN Volunteers already serving in numerous functions within the MONUC Mission. Claudio's particular duties will be to assist in maintaining a complex vehicle inventory for the UN peacekeeping troops there," says Kevin Gilroy, Coordinator of the UNV Programme in East Timor.

For the past two years, Claudio has been working for the Transport Section of the UN Mission in East Timor as an Electronic Data Processing (EDP) Vehicle Inventory assistant. He first started working in June 1999 with the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), and following the crisis period, rejoined the Transport Section with UNTAET where he has continued his EDP work in the Transport Inventory Unit.

The only time Claudio has been outside of his mother country was during the evacuation period in September 1999, when Claudio and many of the UNAMET local staff and families were evacuated to Australia after having taken refuge on the old UNAMET compound. Like so many Timorese, Claudio was separated from his family and uncertain if he would see them again. Fortunately, in November 1999, they were reunited in Dili.

With his latest departure from Timor, Claudio is leaving behind his fiancée, but vows to return soon after his assignment to marry and start a family. "She and my family know this is a great opportunity for me to gain international experience and further my expertise" says Claudio, adding, "we've been separated before, at least this time its for something good."

"We are delighted for Claudio, and wish him the very best in his work in the Congo, one of the most important UN operations under way right now," said Dennis McNamara, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor, when meeting with Claudio today to wish him bon voyage. "This opportunity, to take what he has learned here, and then want to give some of it back to others -- through the United Nations and its UN Volunteer programme -- is simply fantastic, a true reflection of the founding spirit of the United Nations".