East Timor PM pleads for UN mission extension

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13 (Reuters) East Timor's prime minister pleaded for the UN Security Council to ''stay the course'' and extend for 12 months a peacekeeping mission in the Asia-Pacific region's newest country.

The Security Council is due to vote on Feb. 22 on the future of the East Timor UN mission of at least 1,068 police and up to 35 military liaison officers. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recommended it be extended for a year.

''Building a state from almost zero is a Herculean task,'' East Timorese Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta told the council yesterday. ''I plead with you to stay the course with us, in order to turn Timor-Leste eventually into a lasting success story.'' Ramos-Horta said the usual six-month extension meant those working in East Timor would search for other jobs after three months in case a renewal was not forthcoming. The mission was approved by the council on Aug 25 for six months.

While most council members reacted favorably, diplomats said negotiations on the length of the mandate were still underway. China, for one, objected to a year, arguing that the council would have less oversight, the envoys said.

The territory voted in a bloody 1999 referendum for independence from Indonesia, which annexed its neighbor after Portugal ended colonial rule in 1975. After a period of UN administration East Timor became fully independent in 2002.

But an east-west divide in the resource-rich nation of 1 million people erupted into chaos and gang-related violence in May after 600 mutinous soldiers were sacked. Poverty and high youth unemployment also plague the country, where more than 100,000 people are displaced.

''We may have been too quick in pronouncing success in Timor-Leste,'' Singapore's UN ambassador, Vanu Gopala Menon, told the council. ''What we have now is a second chance to get it right.'' ELECTION IN APRIL Australia, which headed a UN-backed intervention force to East Timor in 1999, led a 3,200-strong peacekeeping force back to Dili to combat last year's violence. Canberra still has 800 troops in East Timor, along with 120 New Zealand soldiers.

Australia agreed in January to provide troops to protect the UN mission and rapid response capacity for UN police.

''The international community has again come to the assistance of the Timor-Leste,'' Australia's UN ambassador, Robert Hill, told the council. ''We now encourage the people of Timor-Leste to take responsibility for their own affairs.'' Indonesia's UN ambassador, Rezlan Jenie, told the council the United Nations and international community should continue to play a ''constructive and nurturing role'' in assisting East Timor with its nation-building and reconciliation.

''Indonesia will continue to assist Timor-Leste in addressing the challenges she is facing on the basis of shared principles of peaceful co-existence, forward-looking, reconciliatory and mutually beneficial relations,'' Jenie said.

Ramos-Horta also asked for additional police to be sent to his nation for a presidential poll on April 9 and parliamentary elections due to be held by June. Portugal said it was ready to send more police to meet East Timor's request.

''I am certainly not a pessimist, but neither should we be overly optimistic like we were a few years ago,'' said Atul Khare, the UN special envoy for East Timor.

Reuters AD VP0420