Subject: UNGA defers discussion on East Timor
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 07:53:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Sharon R.A. Scharfe" <pet@web.net>11 September 1998
UN General Assembly
Press Release GA/9434/Rev.1
GENERAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS 166-ITEM GENERAL ASSEMBLY AGENDA
The General Committee, in two meetings held today, recommended 166 items for inclusion
on the General Assembly's agenda for its fifty-third session and allocated them among the
six Main Committees and the plenary.
Question of East Timor
The representative of San Marino, speaking on item 93 on the question of East Timor,
said recent meetings between the Secretary-General and Portuguese and Indonesian officials
and other subsequent discussions had been held without prejudice to the possibility of a
special status for the Territory. It was hoped that agreement could be reached on the
question before the end of the year. He stressed that the present momentum must be
maintained and recommended that consideration of the item be deferred until the
fifty-fourth session of the Assembly and included on the provisional agenda of that
session.
The representative of Brunei Darussalam supported San Marino's proposal to defer
discussion of item 93 to the fifty-fourth session of the Assembly. The item should also be
included on the provisional agenda of that session.
The Committee recommended deferral of the item until the fifty-fourth session.
It proceeded to recommend inclusion of items 94 to 159.
Note from Charles Scheiner
U.N. Representative International Federation for East Timor -
Just for clarification for those not familiar with arcane UN processes, this is what
the UN General Assembly has done every year for the past fifteen years or so. It's a way
of keeping East Timor on the agenda while the Secretary General and various other UN
agencies work on the problem. It continues the last resolution passed by UN General
Assembly in 1982, 37/30, as current policy. Among other things, that resolution:
1. Requests the Secretary-General to initiate consultations with all parties directly
concerned, with a view to exploring avenues for achieving a comprehensive settlement of
the problem and to report thereon to the General Assembly at its thirty-eighth session;
2. Requests the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of
the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples to keep
the situation in the Territory under active consideration and to render all assistance to
the Secretary-General with a view to facilitating the implementation of the present
resolution;
For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact: Sharon
Scharfe, International Secretariat Parliamentarians for East Timor Suite 116, 5929-L
Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net
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