Team to Assess E. Timor’s Needs
A delegation from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund arrived Friday to begin an assessment of East Timor’s economic future.
The delegation arrived as Indonesian troops prepared to leave the territory for the last time. On Friday, Col. Mark Kelly, a spokesman for a multinational, Australian-led peacekeeping force in the territory, told journalists that the Indonesians’ departure was likely within 48 hours.
East Timor, annexed by Indonesia in 1976, voted overwhelmingly for independence in an Aug. 30 U.N.-sponsored referendum. The vote triggered deadly rampages by anti-independence militias.
Klaus Rohland, the head of the delegation, said that, in addition to reconstruction loans, East Timor may receive donations of about $10 million from the World Bank and up to $80 million from other donors to help the territory avoid an immediate debt burden.
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