Precedence: bulk UN CIVILIAN FORCE TO ARRIVE IN EAST TIMOR ON MAY 10 JAKARTA, May 3 (AFP) - The first members of a UN police force will arrive in East Timor on May 10 to assist a referendum in the troubled territory, a minister said Monday. "On May 10, the (UN) civilian police advisors will arrive (in East Timor)," Information Minister Yunus Yosfiah told journalists after a cabinet meeting on political and security affairs. However he did not give a number for those taking part through an agreement with the United Nations to assist Indonesian police ahead of a UN-sponsored referendum on August 8. The vote is to see whether the people in East Timor want autonomy under Indonesia or independence. The civilian police will come from Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Britain, Germany and the United States, he said. A document on the police contingent for the referendum was approved by the cabinet Monday for signature at the United Nations on Wednesday. The Indonesian autonomy offer and an agreement on the modalities of the referendum was also approved for signature at the United Nations, he added. President B.J. Habibie told the cabinet that "if the security situation in East Timor is disturbed, additional police forces should be sent, and not soldiers," Yosfiah said. Jakarta in January said that it may let go of East Timor, which it invaded in 1975 and annexed the following year, if the people there rejected the autonomy offer. But the former Portuguese colony has seen violence and tension rise between pro- and anti-independence camps there since the January announcement. Several major outbreaks of violence there prompted Jakarta to organise the signing of a local peace pact. The Antara news agency Monday quoted Indonesian armed forces chief General Wiranto as warning violators of the peace pact. "If there are still physical pressures exerted, security forces will remain in a neutral position to take action against the violators of the peace pact and of the law," Wiranto said. END etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan John M. Miller Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Media & Outreach Coordinator, East Timor Action Network PO Box 150753, Brooklyn, NY 11215-0753 USA Phone: (718)596-7668 Fax: (718)222-4097 Web site: http://www.etan.org ---------- SiaR WEBSITE: http://apchr.murdoch.edu.au/minihub/siarlist/maillist.html
