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Why another UN Timor mission is
needed
By Paulo Gorjao
East
Timor is seen at the United Nations headquarters as one
of its state-building success stories in the past few
years. Even though the UN had no prior experience in
state-building, it administered and exercised all
legislative and executive authority in the territory
until its independence from Indonesia. Since May 2002,
the UN has been devolving all operational
responsibilities to the East Timorese authorities, and
next May its mission in the new country will end.
The UN role in East Timor after 2004 remains
unclear. The format, the dimension and the roles of the
future UN structure are being discussed in both Dili and
New York.
Next month the special representative
of the UN secretary general, Kamalesh Sharma, will
submit to the Security Council a first draft describing
the future UN presence in East Timor.
East Timor
- as well as Australia and Portugal - desire a
continuing UN "mission" in the territory. East Timor is
now a sovereign state but lacks significant expertise in
several areas of civil administration. Moreover, since
the financial dividends of the oil and gas from the
Timor Sea will not be available until 2005 at the
earliest, this means that East Timor does not have the
resources to pay for the civilian expertise that it
requires.
However, the Security Council and the
United States in particular - mainly for financial
reasons - wish to downsize substantially the UN
involvement in East Timor after May 2004. The US is not
against the continuing presence of the UN organizations
in the territory, but Washington has resisted the idea
of a formal UN "mission".
This is a mistake. The
US should reassess its skepticism toward a successor UN
mission in East Timor. Washington should do so in order
to allow the consolidation of sovereignty in East Timor.
In other words, it should do so for its own
self-interest, not for altruistic reasons.
Southeast Asia harbors several active terrorist
organizations with links to al-Qaeda. Moreover, East
Timor has land borders with Indonesia, where operatives
of Jemaah Islamiya recently mounted a terrorist attack
against the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. Although there is
no terrorist organization known in East Timor, it is
plausible that terrorists might view the territory as a
safe haven, bearing in mind that terrorists are being
actively pursued elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
In
light of the terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia, the
State Department recommends that US citizens defer all
non-essential travel to Indonesia and to exercise
extreme caution while in East Timor.
Apparently,
other states are taking the terrorist threat in
Southeast Asia more seriously than the United States.
This seems to be the case of Australia, which recently
signed a memorandum of understanding with East Timor to
boost cooperation in the fight against international
terrorism. Therefore, it is plausible to argue that the
US, the UN and the international community must remain
engaged with East Timor in order to provide military and
civilian training and expertise, for example in all
matters related with border control.
Moreover,
Washington should support a future UN mission in order
to allow the consolidation of democracy in East Timor.
The serious riots last December and other subsequent
less serious disruptions of public order have shown that
the East Timorese civil and security institutions remain
weak. Indeed, some analysts consider East Timor as a
potentially failed state.
East Timor still
requires expensive foreign expertise to support the
government and the parliament, the public administration
and justice, as well as the police and the military.
As the US knows fully well, the threat of
terrorism and a potentially failed state are an
explosive mixture. Moreover, the US would not face any
sort of resistance within the UN Secretariat and among
the major donors involved in East Timor - Australia,
Japan, and Portugal. In other words, there is a
widespread consensus that a future UN mission, to
succeed UNMISET (the United Nations Mission of Support
in East Timor), is required.
It would be a shame
if, after so much effort, everything were to be lost
because the United States - only for financial reasons
and nothing else - did not support in the Security
Council a future UN mission in East Timor.
Paulo Gorjao is a senior lecturer at
Lusiada University, Portugal, and editor of the
forthcoming book Double Transition in East Timor:
Consolidation of Sovereignty and Democracy.
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