Received from Joyo Indonesian News:

The Age [Australia] Monday, August 9, 1999

UN an early victor in ballot

By LINDSAY MURDOCH INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT JAKARTA, SUNDAY

The first United Nations officials to arrive in East Timor dubbed the job they had undertaken ``mission impossible''. But less than three months after the UN Security Council agreed to spend $A78million to end conflict, the UN mission here has become a show piece for the often criticised world body.

Compared with previous bloated and failed UN missions, diplomats and experienced UN staffers say the East Timor operation, involving fewer than 1000 personnel, has been well focused and tightly run.

The contingent this week completed registering almost 450,000 people to vote on 30 August. The number was far more than expected.

The hastily gathered UN staff had been given little time to set up an operation that would normally have taken the UN bureaucracy at least 12 months. They had no UN money and scant resources, using their own credit cards on run-down hotel rooms and rusting taxis.

Faced with enormous difficulties communicating with their bosses on the other side of the world, they borrowed a fax and spent many hours at night huddled around their only satellite telephone.

Many have not been paid, an oversight they put down to incompetence at the UN in New York. Nor have they received a cent in expenses.

As the first UN charter planes started arriving, the UN suffered a barrage of abuse from the leaders of political and militia groups opposed to the territory's independence. The UN's spokesman, Mr David Wimhurst, was singled out for particular attention after criticising the lack of security. The UN would not be intimidated, he said.

The threats continue, but UN officials have not been deterred, pushing out of Dili into remote areas to set-up registration and voting centres.

In the mountains of central East Timor, UN officials drive along a rutted track each day to reach one of the most isolated of the 200 centres. There is no power, no water, only a bare bamboo hut where villagers have come to ensure they will be able to vote.

Unlike other missions, such as the $A3billion operation in Cambodia in the early 1990s, the UN staff have not introduced AIDS, prostitutes, seedy bars or other foreign influences many East Timorese would find objectionable. Not yet anyway.

The UN's arrival has, of course, had some undesirable impact on a poor, divided society. The price of houses has skyrocketed, along with such basic goods as vegetables. But the UN has created 4000 direct jobs and many more indirectly. Restaurants that were near-empty are now booked out. Hotels are so full the Indonesians are bringing a cruise liner for accommodation.

UN officials in Dili admit that the operation may still turn out to be mission impossible and nobody is surprised by a UN statement this weekend that the UN might pull out if the situation worsens. But an official said: ``The registration of so many people speaks for itself.''

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