United Nations Office in East Timor

The United Nations Office in Timor- Leste ( United Nations Office in Timor- Leste UNOTIL ) is the name of the representative of the United Nations in East Timor. The UN mission carried out with comparatively very little manpower and money began its work in May 2005. By 2006, in about 90 UNOTIL predominantly civilian aid workers have advised. Originally UNOTIL should run for one year the mandate was extended several times and should be valid until August 2006.

The main tasks of UNOTIL are determined on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 1599. UNOTIL supported state institutions such as the National Police to strengthen the development of their capacities to the democratic system and to secure the peace in East Timor. A UN police force from technical consultants led the already existing support for the national police on. For example, special training for rapid response and intervention units were trained. In addition, the consultants were responsible for training in specialized areas, such as the fight against terrorism, forensics, and administration in all districts of East Timor.

1999, the UN Transitional Administration (UNTAET ) was established after the country had voted in a referendum for independence from Indonesia in East Timor. Indonesia had annexed the former Portuguese colony in 1975 nine days after its declaration of independence. After bloody riots by the Indonesian military and pro-Indonesian militias during the referendum of 1999, reached an international force led by Australia. On 20 May 2002 East Timor was released by the United Nations to independence. On the smaller UNTAET peacekeeping mission UNMISET followed. On 20 May 2005 left the last UN peacekeepers of UNMISET East Timor. What remained was adopted by the UN Security Council set up the turn, reduced follow-on mission UNOTIL initially with 45 employees. The mandate of UNOTIL actually ended on 19 May 2006. Due to the unrest in East Timor in 2006, however, the use of the UN was not completed as planned, but converted with Resolution 1704 in the UN mission UNMIT after the UNOTIL mandate already with the UN Security Council Resolution 1677 and 1690 and eventually extended by resolution 1703 to 25 August 2006. The UNMIT officially began on 13 September 2006.