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EAST TIMOR: EMERGING NATION

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U-N says threat of violence in East Timor has decreased

In East Timor, the United Nations says the threat of violence from pro-Indonesian militias has significantly decreased, raising hopes of an early pull out of thousands of peacekeeping troops.

Mark Bowling reports, a spokesman for the UN says militia activity on the border with Indonesian West Timor has practically ceased during the last year.

UN peacekeeping spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jan Fredrik Drangsholt says the main problems along the border are illegal markets and smuggling - matters for police and customs officers, not the military. More than two-thousand peacekeepers are based along the border with West Timor, most of them Australian troops. They are part of an eight-thousand strong peace keeping force in East Timor. The UN force has already begun to withdraw in the Central and eastern areas of the country. The force is expected to be reduced to five thousand soldiers early next year while planners say the number of peacekeepers will be down to two and a half thousand by January 2003.

1/12/01 0:32:48 | ABC Radio Australia News

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