Security Council briefed on latest developments in East Timor
21 March -- The number of major law and order incidents in East Timor has declined, a top United Nations official told the Security Council today as it met in an open meeting to review the latest developments in the territory.
Briefing the Council, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi noted at the same time that law enforcement was still weak, and Timorese communities and groups in some cases attempted to enforce law and order directly. The UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) had established a panel of Timorese and foreign judges to try war crimes, Mr. Annabi said, and close to 300 murder cases were now under investigation.
Amid continuing high unemployment and high prices, the economic and social conditions remained the primary concern as they posed a threat to social peace, Mr. Annabi stressed. To help alleviate the problem, UNTAET had undertaken 18 "quick-impact" projects to repair local infrastructure and paid more than 2,500 civil servants at the end of last month.
Meanwhile, the UN mission in East Timor today challenged the claim made by a story in The Jakarta Post on Monday that 10,000 East Timorese had allegedly returned to West Timor over the past month.
According to a UN spokesman, neither the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNTAET's office in Kupang, West Timor, nor the Government of West Timor had evidence of any such movement of people from East to West Timor.
In another development, UNTAET Force Commander Lt. Gen. Jaime de los Santos downgraded yesterday the security threat in three districts in East Timor from "high" to "medium," and in one other district from "medium" to "low." The enclave of Oecussi remained at a medium threat level, while the rest of the country was graded as low-threat.
