International Borders Between Indonesia And East Timor example essay topic

East Timor had been the poorest "province" of Indonesia, with one of the highest rates of child mortality in the world. After centuries of underdevelopment, poverty is endemic. According to the National Planning Commission, 41% of East Timorese live in poverty and 48% are illiterate. Poverty in rural areas is 46%, and in urban areas it is 26%. Transitional Phase: 5/9/99: The UNTAET (UNITED NATIONS TRANSITIONAL ADMINISTRATION IN EAST TIMOR) came with a mandate from the Security Council. There are different interpretations of the goals of the UN, but there are four key responsibilities: Protect East Timor's security and handle the humanitarian emergency resulting from the Indonesian occupation and the devastation of 1999.

Prepare East Timor for self-government after the transitional period ends. Govern East Timor during the transitional period. Deal with the thousands of perpetrators of a quarter-century of crimes against humanity who remain at large, mostly in Indonesia. - Since it began work in 1999, the SCU has obtained arrest warrants for 247 individuals accused of human-rights violations, of whom 169 remain at large in Indonesia.

(May 15, 2003.) As of May 5, 2002. Good and bad: Good progress was made in security, constitution-writing, and women's participation in government. The Constituent Assembly and Presidential elections were fair and peaceful, and the results reflect popular will. Bad: Not many East Timorese were well informed on the candidates and did not know how to actively participate in a vote. Good: A civil registry was developed, with 700,000 people registered. Bad: Reports claim that 25% of this is inaccurate, and some pundits claim the whole system should be scrapped.

Good: UNTAET preached good governance, transparency, accountability, democracy and the rule of law to the East Timorese Bad: One man was in control of the law, Sergio Vieira de Mello, a. k. a. Special Representative of the UN Security-General. De Mello practically had all the power he wanted, and all laws began with "The S RSG decrees the following... ". Good: UNTAET helped manage systems of government and social services. Bad: UNTAET brought in too many people, and never bothered to train East Timorese to manage these systems.

Therefore, the East Timorese had a larger mountain to climb. Good: ~150,000 of 200,000 refugees have returned. Bad: ~55,000 refugees have yet to return from Indonesia. October 6th, 2003 report by UN Security Council on East Timor: Recent events: International borders between Indonesia and East Timor will be settled by November 30th, 2003. East Timor's public administration needs a lot of work, as 86% of the 13,000 budgeted positions have been filled. One result of the shortage of qualified personnel is that 22% of those in prisons are being held past their actual sentence.

The goal of 3,000 in the police force is short by about 2700, of which 20% are women. While this is promising, there are several reports of police involvement in bribery, misconduct, participation in illegal activities, and excessive use of physical force against citizens. East Timor's GDP decreased by three percent over the past year, and will decrease another two percent by the end of 2003. The reason for this can partially be attributed to the withdrawal of donor contributions, which fell 15% over the past two years, and will fall by another 11% this year. There is also a severe food shortage, due to floods in June and July of 2003. It is also expected that there will be a drought in November 2003 and March 2004.

If that is the case, the UN has estimated that 110,000 people (13% of the population) will need food aid within six months. East Timor earned $44.1 million in revenue, of which 26.7 million was from petroleum. The expenditures of the company totaled $70.6 million. Donations helped counter the losses over the past year, which totaled $26.6 million. (It takes Apple 10 days to make the same revenue as East Timor does in one year. ).