Translation
Original: Portuguese
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF EAST TIMOR
PRESS COMMUNIQUÉ
12th Meeting of the Council of Ministers of the
First Constitutional Government of the
Democratic Republic of East Timor
Dili, 4 September 2002, 08:00am
All members of the Council of Ministers of the First Constitutional Government of the Democratic Republic of East Timor were present at today’s meeting, except for the Minister of Internal Administration, who was represented by his Vice-Minister, and the Senior Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, who was represented by one of his Vice-Ministers.
The Council of Ministers has decided to establish a committee chaired by the Prime Minister and tasked with considering and preparing urgent and priority legislation intended to regulate the market and control prices applied in East Timor, which are considered as clearly high and not taking into account the economic reality of the country. The mentioned legislation will also address arrangements to combat speculation.
Pursuant to the decision made by the Council of Ministers at its meeting on 27 August 2002, in connection with the draft Decree-Law on the Reorganization of the Immigration Control Service, the Council has approved today the draft submitted by the Ministry of Internal Administration. This legal instrument provides a legal framework for the progressive and factual separation of the Customs Service from the Immigration Service, and provides for the establishment of an Immigration Division within the East Timorese Police Service. It is a Decree-Law that results from the need to put in place an autonomous immigration control service, and the Government has decided to set up this service as a division of the East Timorese Police Service, taking into consideration the nature of the functions to be performed, on the one hand, and for the sake of a prudent management, and organizational and economic rationalization, on the other. The Decree-Law that has just been approved will now be submitted to the President of the Republic for promulgation, as provided for by the Constitution.
The Council of Ministers has approved the National Strategic Plan for a Comprehensive and Multi-sectoral Response against the AIDS virus and other sexually transmitted diseases, submitted by the Ministry of Health. AIDS has now become one of the most feared and difficult-to-control diseases on the world arena, and the situation in South-East Asia is extremely worrying because it is the second worst-affected zone due to the rapid spread of the epidemic. The current HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in East Timor is 0.64% approximately, according to estimates by the Ministry of Health. Fighting AIDS becomes thus a priority of the health policy, as in most countries. As a result, the Ministry of Health has developed a National Strategic Plan to fight the virus, which covers the period 2002-2005 and falls within the integrated outlook of the National Development Plan for East Timor. The National Strategic Plan emphasises the need for intensive multi-sectoral mobilization at the level of public awareness and capacity building of health services. For the preparation and implementation of this plan, the Government is banking on participation of different partners, including UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, the Catholic Church, political leaders, international peace-keeping forces, as well as the East Timorese military and police forces, which will play an important role in fostering activities aimed at greater awareness and control over the spread of the AIDS virus and other sexually transmitted diseases.