---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- UNAMET set to conclude voter registration in East Timor JAKARTA, Aug 3 (AFP) - The UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) Tuesday prepared to wind up its registration of voters for a landmark referendum which could determine the troubled territory's future. "There is no intention to extend (the 20-day registration period) beyond Wednesday," UNAMET spokesman David Wimhurst told AFP by phone from the East Timorese capital of Dili. Wimhurst said registration had tapered off for the August 30 poll in a "natural down curve" with 383,000 people already registered for the vote inside East Timor. Initial expectations had been for 300,000 to 400,000 people to register. Registration posts in foreign countries including Australia, Portugal and Macau had listed about 10,000 people who had fled the the former Portuguese territory after it was invaded by Indonesia in 1975. Before the 200 registration centers inside the territory close Wednesday, most efforts will be focused on about 60,000 internal refugees, driven from their villages by violence and intimidation. Some had returned to their homes but many were now being asked to register where they were. Wimhurst said UNAMET chief Ian Martin flew Tuesday to the border area with Indonesian West Timor, to check on arrangements for cross border refugee registration there. At other posts near crowded refugee camps, additional electoral officers had been dispatched to cope with those unable to return to their villages. Wimhurst said the pre-poll timetable had been condensed, as a result of two delays in registration ordered by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, to allow the level of violence to subside. Since Jakarta announced in January that it could let East Timor go if its people rejected an offer of autonomy under the Indonesian flag, violence in the territory has risen, most of it blamed on Indonesian military-backed militia. The militia were blamed for several massacres in the areas of Liquisa on the west coast and in Dili. Negotiations are under way with both the militia and the pro-independence Falintil guerrillas in the mountains of East Timor over a form of disarmament or cantonment of their men during the ballot period. Wimhurst said the tentative dates for the campaign period -- August 11 through August 27 -- would overlap with the 10 day period for open challenges to the voter lists which would be posted publicly territory-wide. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 3 Aug 1999 jam 07:47:08 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
