UN Transitional Authority – 2000
2000
UNTAET was deployed in the first months of 2000 and officially assumed military command of East Timor from INTERFET on 23 February 2000. UNTAET assumed responsibility for civilian administration in the territory until a competent civil administration staffed and administered by East Timorese could be established. Building a civil administration of East Timorese citizens was a challenge because the majority of qualified individuals in the territory fled the country before or during the violence surrounding the August 1999 popular consultation. In December 1999 after assuming responsibility in the territory, UNTAET established a National Consultative Council (NCC) composed of 11 East Timorese political leaders and 4 UNTAET members. The task of the NCC was to consult on and provide consent to regulations necessary to creating a state structure, including establishing a judiciary, setting an official currency, creating border controls, taxation, and other functions. (After critique, NCC was reformed into National Council in July 2000 and increased to 36 members — all Timorese) UNTAET also began a process of reorganizing itself to resemble more closely the future government of East Timor and to increase the direct participation of the East Timorese. Eight portfolios were created: internal administration, infrastructure, economic affairs, social affairs, finance, justice, police and emergency services, and political affairs. The first four were headed by East Timorese and the other four by senior UNTAET officials. The process of transformation and institution building would later lead to the establishment, in August 2000, of the East Timor Transitional Administration (ETTA) headed by the Transitional Administrator.1
The process by which UNTAET established a Timorese-run civil administration was known as “Timorization” and consisted of gradually hiring East Timorese citizens for positions in the government and relinquishing control over the functioning of the administration from the bottom up. By the end of 2000 over 7,000 Timorese had been hired as civil servents by the ETTA out of a projected total of 10,554. The ETTA, with assistance from UNTAET, also trained over 1,500 people in courses on government, public participation, and management.2 This was far from a smooth process and there is much critique against it for not actually entailing “timorization.”
- “United Nations Department of Peacekeeping,”accessed November 6, 2010, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/past/etimor/UntaetB.htm.
- “Secretary General’s Report to the UN Security Council,” United Nations Security Council (S/2001/42), January 16, 2001.