The United Nations and the Government of Timor-Leste will be consulting closely on how the world body can best support the country’s efforts to secure a stable and prosperous future between now and 2012, when it is expected that the UN mission will close its operations there, said a senior official.
The Security Council today extend for another year the mandate of the United Nations mission working to promote peace, stability and development in Timor-Leste.
Timor-Leste has made “remarkable progress” since the violence that disrupted it in 2006, but the long-term goals of recovery and development may prove even more challenging, the top United Nations envoy to the small South-East Asian country said today.
To help combat high maternal mortality rates in Timor-Leste, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has supplied equipment to assist in child delivery to a hospital in the capital of the fledgling nation.
On her first district visits since assuming the top United Nations post in Timor-Leste, Ameerah Haq this week saw first-hand the strides made by the Timorese police force, who are gradually assuming responsibility from the world body’s peacekeeping force.
Underscoring the strong ties between the United Nations and Timor-Leste, the world body’s new top envoy to the fledgling nation today expressed her commitment to continuing with the deep relationship.
Ameerah Haq of Bangladesh, a humanitarian official with over three decades of experience with the United Nations, arrived today in Timor-Leste to take up her post as the world body’s top envoy to the fledgling Asian nation.
The police officer under investigation for last week’s deadly shooting in Timor-Leste has been suspended from duty, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country, known as UNMIT, announced today.
The United Nations today confirmed its participation in the criminal investigation of a deadly shooting allegedly committed by the police in the capital of Timor-Leste, and has called on the people of the nation to respect the law.
The United Nations handed over further policing responsibilities to Timor-Leste today as part of the gradual transfer of the security functions it assumed in 2006 after dozens of people were killed and 155,000 others – 15 per cent of the population – were driven from their homes in an eruption of violence in the newly independent country.
![Security forces in Timor-Leste [File Photo]](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/assets/2009/12/09979/image100x100cropped.jpg "Security forces in Timor-Leste [File Photo]")
![UNMIT empowers local police force in, Dili, East Timor [File Photo]](https://global.unitednations.entermediadb.net/assets/mediadb/services/module/asset/downloads/preset/assets/2009/12/09936/image100x100cropped.jpg "UNMIT empowers local police force in, Dili, East Timor [File Photo]")