MILITIA MEMBER SENTENCED IN UNAMET MURDER CASE A Serious Crimes Panel in Dili yesterday convicted a former militia member to 15 year’s imprisonment for the murder of a United Nations official in Ermera district following the Popular Consultation of 1999. United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) local staff member Manuel de Oliveira was seized by a militia group in Ermera’s Atsabe subdistrict on 31 August 1999 and subsequently beaten and stabbed to death. Agustinho da Costa, who was convicted of the murder, was a member of the Team Pancasila Pemuda militia group. He claimed that Indonesian soldiers had identified Manuel de Oliveira as a member of the pro-independence guerrilla Falantil. This is the first case in which a person has been convicted of killing a UNAMET official. Nine UNAMET local personnel were killed during the violence surrounding the 30 August 1999 Popular Consultation. UNAMET was in East Timor between July and September 1999.

VOTER EXHIBITION AND CHALLENGE PERIOD GETS UNDERWAY

The preliminary lists of voters eligible to take part in the upcoming Constituent Assembly elections were posted yesterday, 16 July, in all 65 sub-districts of East Timor for a ten-day exhibition and challenge period.

The Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) Chief Electoral Officer Carlos Valenzuela today appealed the population to confirm that their names are included on the preliminary lists. In Dili alone, more than 4,000 East Timorese have already visited exhibition and challenge centers.

“The Independent Electoral Commission encourages as many people as possible to visit exhibition and challenge centers during this period, as this will be the only opportunity to correct any identified errors,” Valenzuela said.

The exhibition and challenge period will also be the first opportunity for the population to find out where they are assigned to vote in the Constituent Assembly elections.

As scheduled, on 30 June UNTAET’s Civil Registration Unit turned over a copy of its database to the IEC for the development of the preliminary voter lists. Before the handover of the database, quality control checks were carried out and some problems identified.

“The Civil Registration Unit worked intensely in finding solutions, yet some problems remained at the time of the handover,” Valenzuela said. “The Electoral Commissioners have expressed concern over these problems, particularly the number of names that may be missing from the database because of failures in the transfer of data from registration locations to the Civil Registration Unit’s central server.”

Over 6,500 names have been recovered, and Civil Registration Unit does not expect that more missing names will be identified.

More than 70 exhibition and challenge sites opened yesterday and will be operating until July 25. In addition, at least one mobile team will be operating in each sub-district. All sites will be open on Saturday and Sunday.

In related news, political parties and independent candidates officially began campaigning on 15 July. The previous day the IEC had made public the final list of candidates and handed them to the political parties and independent candidates. The final numbers are: 16 political parties with a total of 963 candidates for national representatives (255 of them women, or 27%), and 85 candidates for district representatives (of whom only five are women).

Additionally, there are five registered independent candidates for national seats (three of whom are women) and 11 registered independent candidates for district seats (3 of whom are women). The districts of Lautem and Oecussi have the largest number of independent candidates.

The order in which parties and candidates will appear on each of the fourteen ballots was determined by a lottery at both the IEC Headquarters and at each district Electoral Office. For this purpose, the IEC held fourteen events that were attended by a majority of the national party representatives and the district candidates, as well as by numerous press, radio and TV journalists.

SRSG HOLDS OPEN DIALOGUE SESSIONS IN DISTRICTS

SRSG Sergio Vieira de Mello and representatives from 12 political parties today took part in Open Dialogue sessions in Viqueque and Lautem districts.

At the beginning of each of the three-hour sessions, the newly signed Pact of National Unity was read aloud and then distributed to the hundreds of people in attendance.

Participants at both sessions directed a wide range of questions to the political parties and expressed enthusiasm that the pact had been signed. The political parties present reiterated at both meetings that they are fully committed to the pact.

The pact, signed on July 8, calls for the support, respect and dissemination of the principle of non-violence; the unconditional acceptance of the 30 August 1999 Popular Consultation results; and the respect of the results of the upcoming elections.

At both meetings the SRSG appealed for a full participation in the political process, calling on the population to attend political party meetings to demand that party leaders and independent candidates articulately present their programs and ideas. Upon his arrival in Viqueque town, the SRSG officially opened a Political Parties Resource

Center before beginning the Open Dialogue session attended by an estimated 500 people. A larger crowd of some 700 people attended the session in Lospalos.

UNTAET RADIO AND TELEVISION AIR FIRST POLITICAL DEBATE

Fifteen political parties registered in the upcoming Constituent Assembly elections today took part in an eight-hour debate moderated by Cabinet Member for Foreign Affairs José Ramos-Horta.

Each of the parties present at this first public debate unanimously agreed to accept the result of a free and fair election process, to cooperate with the victorious parties, and to urge their supporters to do the same. UNTAET radio and television broadcast the entire event live, and is scheduled to re-broadcast segments from the debate tomorrow.

The Timorese Social Democratic Association (ASDT) was the only political party registered in the August 30 elections not to participate in the debate.

Separately, UNTAET Radio and Television units yesterday evening broadcast the first campaign messages recorded by political parties and independent candidates over the weekend. The broadcast, which was produced by an Independent Producer, is part of a broad range of initiatives being taken by UNTAET media to afford equal access to political parties and independent candidates registered in the 30 August Constituent Assembly elections. The segment will be broadcast again tonight and for a total of 17.5 hours over the rest of this week, both during the day and during prime-time slots.

MEETINGS SCHEDULED TO DISCUSS TIMOR SEA ARRANGEMENT

An East Timor Transitional Administration delegation is scheduled to begin meeting with Australian officials and oil company representatives tomorrow, 18 July, to discuss outstanding fiscal issues relating to the recently initialed Timor Sea Arrangement.

The meetings will be held in Darwin, Australia, from 18-20 July and will focus on East Timor’s new tax guidelines and prospective prices for natural gas.

Former Cabinet Member for Economic Affairs Mari Alkatiri and Cabinet Member for Finance Michael Francino will attend the meetings, along with Australian officials from the Ministry of Industry, Science and Resources.

Representatives from Woodside Energy and Phillips Oil – companies with investments in the area covered by the Timor Sea Arrangement – will meet with the delegations on Friday.

Under the Timor Sea Arrangement initialed by the East Timor Transitional Administration and the Australian Government in Dili on July 5, East Timor will receive 90 per cent of the revenues from the oil and gas reserves, estimated to total between US$4-5 billion over a 20-year period.