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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to authorize 1,600 international police and 34 military liaison officers for a follow-on mission in East Timor — but no troops.
A U.N. political mission had been scheduled to shut down on May 20 of this year. But violence erupted in East Timor in March after then-Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri fired about 600 soldiers, sparking clashes between rival security forces in the capital that later spilled into gang warfare, looting and arson.
The Security Council extended the mandate of the political mission until Aug. 20, and then for another week because of division among council members over whether foreign troops helping to restore security at the government's request should become part of a new U.N. peacekeeping mission or operate without a U.N. umbrella.
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