The Special Representative, Ian Martin, is travelling today to Maliana and Oekussi to see the arrangements UNAMET has made to reinforce registration centres in those areas to handle incoming refugees who wish to register in those areas. He will return to Dili early in the afternoon.
A correspondent asked the Spokesman if he had any insight as to why only 10,000 people had registered outside of East Timor given the estimate of 34,000 eligible voters outside of East Timor, and if UNAMET expected more people to register there. He said it was difficult to assess how many eligible voters there were, particularly outside of East Timor.
He added that the Australian Electoral Commission was responsible for voter registration throughout Australia and the International Organization of Migration was handling voter registration in other areas outside of Australia and East Timor.
A correspondent asked how people outside of East Timor could find out where to register. The Spokesman said registration sites outside of East Timor have been advertised in the press throughout the areas. For example, he said, the IOM has been putting out advertisements in the media for the five Indonesian sites.
A correspondent asked for an update on how talks on cantonment were going. Mr. Wimhurst said that UNAMET had discussions with FALINTIL last week and they are moving their people into designated areas which UNAMET has been invited to observe. He added that this is a unilateral move by FALINTIL.
A correspondent asked about the status of talks regarding UNAMET registering in FALINTIL areas because of security concerns instead of FALINTIL going to registration centres. The Spokesman said UNAMET’s position was that they could not open up registration centres outside of the existing 200. FALANTIL, as well as others, he added, would have to register at one of these existing centres. He said, UNAMET did have information that some FALINTIL members have already registered.
A correspondent asked what UNAMET’s role was in cantonment and how the decision came about. Mr. Wimhurst said UNAMET’s role was to observe the cantonment and it was FALINTIL's decision.
A correspondent asked what the ground rules were for the campaign period. The Spokesman said there was a code of conduct that had been drawn up and hopefully would be formally approved by the two parties this week. Once that is done, he said, UNAMET would make it public.
