EAST TIMORESE WANT PORTUGUESE INTERIM CURRENCY.
East Timorese resistance leaders said yesterday their people placed particular trust in Portugal, the territory's former colonial ruler, and urged the UN to give Lisbon a bigger role in their transition to independence, reports the Financial Times (p.8). Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta said in London
yesterday he and independence leader Xanana Gusmao wanted UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a Portuguese deputy administrator to the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor, which is to steer the territory towards independence in two to three years' time.
During this time, Ramos-Horta noted, East Timor needed an interim currency. If East Timor became a temporary ward of Portugal under UN administration, the best currency option would be the Portuguese escudo, he said. A strong central bank would be needed to back the interim currency, and "only the Portuguese are ready to support this."
However, notes the story, the issue of a currency is far from being decided, with some people in the East Timorese exile community, along with international advisers, considering the arguments for the territory having its own currency or adopting the Australian, US, or Singapore dollar.
Meanwhile, reports the International Herald Tribune (p.5), Australian officials yesterday cautioned that the ambitious UN military and civilian operation to prepare East Timor for independence could be delayed by a shortage of money. With UN officials estimating the cost of the operation at $500 million, an Australian official said his government was worried that the UN would fail to mobilize enough financial support for it to proceed on schedule.