East Timor: Germany Offers Vessel to Link Oe Cussi Enclave - Ramos Horta 8 Feb-19:43

Germany will provide a ferry to assure connections between Dili and the Oe Cussi enclave, the East Timorese transition government's foreign minister told Lusa Thursday in Berlin.

The 40,000 inhabitants of the north coast Oe Cussi enclave are separated from the rest of East Timor by about 80 kms of Indonesian territory.

"We had repeatedly asked UNTAET (the UN transition government in East Timor) and Portugal, but had still not found a solution", Jose Ramos Horta said.

He made his comments after meeting with the German minister for cooperation and development, Heidemarie Wieckzorek-Zeul, who confirmed that East Timor was now included on Germany's list of development aid partners.

The list, which facilitates regular technical and financial aid, had recently been reduced from 118 to 70 countries. Selection criteria are based on respect for human rights, democracy and good governance.

"We are going to do what we can to aid the reconstruction of East Timor, especially by helping rebuild the public administration", Wieckzorek-Zeul told Lusa.

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