Japanese election monitors leave for E. Timor

NARITA, Japan, April 3 Kyodo

Nine Japanese election monitors left for East Timor on Tuesday to work together with monitors from other nations for the country's presidential election on Monday in line with an extension of U.N. peacekeeping operations there.

The nine, including Foreign Ministry officials and nongovernmental organization members, are scheduled to return on April 12, government officials said.

''We would like to convey Japan's message that an election based on rules is needed so as not to return to a time of bloodshed,'' said Hideaki Asahi, head of the Japanese monitoring mission and former ambassador to East Timor.

The government decided at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday to dispatch a 14-member election monitoring delegation -- four of whom, including members of the Cabinet Office, have already left in late March. One member will leave later.

Japan's decision came in light of the U.N. Security Council's Feb. 22 decision to extend the mandate and temporarily reinforce the U.N. Integrated Mission Timor-Leste by another year until Feb. 26 next year to support the presidential election and corresponding parliamentary elections.

The presidential election on Monday will be the first in East Timor since the country gained independence from Indonesia in May 2002 with U.N. assistance.

Security concerns are rising as the election campaign kicked off March 23, with supporters of leading candidate Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta being attacked by local residents with stones on Thursday and many being injured.

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