Disarmament – 1999

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Disarmament – 1999

1999

Intermediate Implementation Intermediate implementation

The militias took most of their arsenal to West Timor and INTERFET confiscated all other weapons but permitted Falintil to remain armed within specified cantonments for some time.1 However, the Falinitl were then demobilized and a formal military was created during UNTAET. The role of the military and the veterans were much debated during UNTAET (it was decided that they should not be allowed to play a role in politics as long as they were in the military forces). Politically, it is still quite sensitive. For example, the problems stemming from how the military and police were set up in relation to the political establishment were critical to the renewed violence in 2006.

  1. Michael G. Smith and Moreen Dee, Peacekeeping in East Timor: The Path to Independence, International Peace Academy Occasional Paper Series (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003), 49-50.