South Korea decided to dispatch about 100 police officers to East Timor early next year in response to a U.N. request to help resolve growing instability in the young Southeast Asian state, the police agency said Friday.
The United Nations Security Council has requested Seoul through the Foreign Ministry that the Korean police participate in the U.N. peacekeeping operations in East Timor, where bloody chaos has deepened since its 1999 independence from Indonesia.
The U.N. passed a resolution in August to deploy about 1,600 police officers from its member nations to the region, and forces from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal have participated in the operations.
The National Police Agency said it will send 5 officers on Nov. 23 before the main body arrives. Equipped with excellency in foreign language skills and physical capability, the officers will be commissioned to exchange security knowhow with the local and U.N. officers and command Korea's squadron-size deployment next year, it said.
From 1999-2003, South Korea operated a military unit of about 400 soldiers in East Timor to help rebuild the country at the request of the United Nations and the Australia-led multinational forces.
Gun battles and arson heightened in East Timor in March in the process of the dismissal of some 40 percent of local soldiers after the liberation, as government troops and the affected soldiers violently clashed.
In September 1999, East Timor became independent following 24 years of Indonesian rule after a referendum backed by the United Nations.
Seoul, Nov. 10 (Yonhap News)
S. Korea decides to send 100 police to East Timor upon U.N. request |
