All 16 political parties registered for 30 August elections, UN says

The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) today finalized a list of 16 East Timorese political parties eligible to field candidates for the territory's first democratically elected legislative body.

The Associação Popular Democrática Timorese Pró-Referendo (Apodeti) became the last party to receive its official registration certificate from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in Dili.

On Friday, the IEC will hold a lottery to determine the position of each party and independent candidate on the national ballot.

East Timor will go to the polls on 30 August to elect an 88-member Constituent Assembly, which will have the task of writing and adopting a Constitution.

In other news, a prominent member of the Team Alpha militia has publicly admitted his involvement in a series of crimes as East Timor's first trial for crimes against humanity continued today.

Joni Marques told a three-judge panel in Dili that his participation in the crimes "was my most fatal mistake. Because it was the wrong thing to do in the eyes of the community and the people, I am ready to make my confession for this mistake."

Mr. Marques also admitted to being present at the torture and subsequent killing of Evaristo Lopes, a supporter of the guerrilla group FALINTIL, and to murdering a man in northern Lautem District whom Team Alpha allegedly suspected of supporting the pro-independence group National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT).

Presiding Judge Marcelo Dolzany da Costa, however, determined that not all of Mr. Marques' admissions were consistent with the Prosecutor's case and the charges against him, and subsequently ruled his statements to be non-admissions of guilt. Mr. Marques will likely have to undergo cross-examination by the prosecutor and face evidence provided by witnesses before his guilt can be determined and any sentence imposed.

Mr. Marques is the first of 10 East Timorese defendants to respond to a series of charges that include 13 murders, an attack and burning of a number of villages and subsequent deportation of their inhabitants, and torture. All of these incidents allegedly took place in Lautem District between April and September 1999.