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Dr. Ramos-Horta: "All countries are satisfied with the
agreed protocol", 8 June 2006
The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and Minister
for Defence, Dr. José Ramos-Horta, today held discussions
with the Commanders and Ambassadors of the deploying forces and
some of his Ministerial counterparts on the issue of cooperation
command.
Dr. Ramos-Horta said that there has been a lot of discussion
about the issue of the deployment of the GNR, the Portuguese elite
police force.
"As a result of these discussions, I'm pleased to report
that agreement was reached at the operational level on the cooperation
command, and all countries are satisfied with the agreed protocol
that came out of the discussions."
"The long term objective is to have GNR operate as tactical
response within the international police force across the city,"
Dr Ramos-Horta said.
"As a first step, commencing immediately, the GNR can deploy
to an exclusive operations zone agreed by the Government of Timor-Leste
for the purpose of maintaining civil obedience and law and order.
"More importantly, while conducting operations in their
exclusive zone, GNR and the international military forces will
jointly develop procedures to enable the Portuguese elite police
force to respond to requests outside of their exclusive zone,"
Minister Ramos-Horta said.
"I thank all the parties from the deploying forces - Australia,
Malaysia, New Zealand and Portugal - for their goodwill and good
sense in ensuring that the security of the Timorese is the paramount
objective," the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister
for Defence, Dr Ramos-Horta, concluded.
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