Congratulating East Timor on becoming the world's newest nation, the UN Security Council voted unanimously today for a scaled-down peacekeeping operation that would be phased out in two years.
The United Nations has been administering the territory, which becomes independent at midnight on Sunday, since late 1999, a few months after Timorese overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia. Jakarta's troops invaded the territory in 1975 after colonial ruler, Portugal, pulled out.
UN peacekeeping soldiers, which numbered 8,000 last year, are being cut to 5,000. The council's resolution also approved 1,250 civilian police and 100 administrators to work in ministries, crime and human rights units.
"The Security Council welcomes the attainment of independence by East Timor on May 20, 2002, which marks the culmination of a process of self-determination and transition that began in May 1999," the 15-nation body said in a draft statement to be read by its current president, Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani of Singapore, on Monday.
But the council was concerned that challenges to the security and stability of East Timor remain after independence and pledged to help the new country develop, according to the draft statement.
East Timor is expected to join the United Nations shortly, becoming its 190th member.
The council resolution changed the name of their operation to the UN Mission of Support in East Timor, or UNMISET. The mission had previously been known as the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor, or UNTAET.
Despite reconstruction efforts, East Timor is still an impoverished country, its 740,000 people among the poorest in Asia. Most of the UN-hired personnel who have been helping to run the country are pulling out, raising fears the new nation will have to hire costly experts to run power plants and other services.