Security Council may hold public meeting on Timor-Leste next week – President

The United Nations Security Council is likely to hold a public meeting next week to discuss the current situation in strife-torn Timor-Leste, the 15-member body’s President, Ambassador Ellen Margrethe Løj of Denmark, said today.

Ambassador Løj, who assumed the rotating presidency of the 15-member Council Thursday, said no date has been fixed for the meeting as yet, but added “probably” it will be held next week.

The mandate for the UN mission in Timor-Leste is due to expire on 20 June. In recent weeks, some 100,000 people have been uprooted by turmoil aggravated by the dismissal of a third of the armed forces in the country which the UN shepherded to independence from Indonesia in 2002.

Ms. Løj said the Council’s agenda for this month includes discussions on an experts’ report on the situation in Liberia, the independent investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, the presence of multinational force in Iraq, and the issues of protection of civilians in armed conflicts, small arms, and non-proliferation, among other matters.

This month, the Security Council will also hold briefings on the situation in the Middle East and the work of the International Criminal Tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, she said.