Release of Tension

The UN released its report today at 4 pm, and as far as I have heard, things are calm and people are lying low.

I went to Parliament with Karlito, my boss and his wife (who is visiting) for the release. Unlike the other times that I have been to Parliament the seats were filled and the members were attentive. The Acting Special Representative of the Secretary General Finn Reske-Nielsen (A-SRSG, top UN official) gave a short speech and then helpers handed out big yellow envelopes to all the Parliamentarians.

This is a digital, decentralized world, and within an hour a notorious Lusophone blog had posted the report. It got it off the site of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), but I like that Karlito found it on the blog first. UNMIT – the putative author – has not posted a copy. Hard copies will be available tomorrow, but by that time the papers will have excerpted the good bits for general consumption.

There were lots of UNPol around after the session ended, almost all Malaysian units. In Timor Leste, there are currently about 800 personnel under the banner of UN Police (which will increase to 1,608 for the April elections) and 1,000 Australian Defense Force/New Zealand Joint Task Force personnel (which will decrease to 600 at the elections). The Portuguese troops (GNR) are now counted in the UNPol number. Right now, 900 Timorese police (PDTL) are being retrained and slowly redeployed.

I am interested to read the report and then to read what the newspapers have to say.