UNAMET Spokesman David Wimhurst began his briefing by providing revised provisional figures for registrants to date. He said, as of today 446,666 individuals had registered in total. The numbers of registrants inside East Timor is 433,576 and the external registration figure stands at 13,090. These numbers, he added, are still subject to change and the final numbers will be made public once the data processing has been completed in Sydney.
Later today the Special Representative will be going to Jakarta to participate in a meeting with senior officials. That meeting will be between Indonesian, Portuguese and UNAMET senior officials.
Mr. Francesc Vendrell, the Deputy Personal Representative of the Secretary-General, will be coming from New York to attend the meeting, as well as Ambassador Marker, the Personal Representative, and Mr. Joachim Hütter, who is the Director of the Asia Division in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at UN Headquarters. Towards the end of the week, they will be returning to Dili and will remain here over the weekend.
Lastly, the Spokesman said there was a UNAMET fact sheet which his office was going to make available after the briefing which provides details of the Mission including deployment figures, key players, logistics and the structure of the Mission.
A correspondent asked what would be discussed at the senior officials meeting in Jakarta. Mr. Wimhurst said they will be discussing phase II - the post-vote scenario - and how this Mission will continue.
The Spokesman was asked if Mr. Hütter’s visit was to discuss a possible peacekeeping role for UNAMET. He said UNAMET was a mission which comes under the authority of the Department of Political Affairs, but it is supported logistically by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which is the branch of the UN Secretariat which has logistical and field support mechanisms. As the Director in charge of that, Mr. Hütter will be participating in these talks.
A correspondent asked the Spokesman if he had any information on a reported killing in Liquica yesterday. He said he had heard that there was an incident in Liquica but did not have any details.
A correspondent asked if there had been any request to increase the number of CivPol either before, during or after the ballot. Mr. Wimhurst said what UNAMET is now doing is planning for phase II after the vote and that is part of the discussion going on in Jakarta at the senior officials meeting. It is likely, he said, that during the period after the ballot there will be an increase in numbers of Civilian Police in East Timor, although no final decision has been taken yet and no numbers are available yet.
A correspondent asked if UNAMET expected Jakarta to agree to a proposal to increase the number of CivPol. The Spokesman said that was a subject being discussed in Jakarta this week.
