SRSG Sergio Vieira de Mello visited two power stations in Dili today, two weeks after the Transitional Administration started charging electricity fees to large commercial customers in East Timor for the first time.
The charges will apply to hotels, restaurants, shops, offices, ports, airports, UN premises and NGOs.
Before the violence in September, 60 power stations operated in the country. Currently, only 30 are working. “The other 30 were seriously destroyed or burned to the ground,” said Owen Peake, head of UNTAET’s Electricity department, before the visit.
The charge rate is 12.3 US cents per unit. The revenue collected will go to the East Timor budget.
“We will charge the domestic customers after we review their ability to pay,” SRSG Sergio Vieira de Mello said at Kaikoli power station.
Dili still faces a power problem, in part due to years of neglect of the aging equipment.
Last week, the SRSG appealed to all UNTAET staff to conserve electricity because of the power shortage.
SRSG VISITS TIMORESE DAILY NEWSPAPER
SRSG Sergio Vieira de Mello visited the newsroom of the Timorese daily newspaper Suara Timor Lorosae on Saturday and said he hoped that the new democratic Timorese media would be impartial.
Suara Timor Lorosae’s building was destroyed in September and the paper is now operating out of the kitchen of the old newsroom.
SRSG also asked the journalists to work with the United Nations in the “political process” which will start with a large “civic education” campaign in September, in preparation for the elections.
