A handover ceremony was held in Dili on 3 June to mark the transfer of all court documents of the Special Panels for serious crimes to the Dili district court.

Only the district court in Dili operates on a full time basis.

On 16 December 2004, a group of 20 armed soldiers attacked a police station in Dili, injuring two officers and causing damage to the premises.

Occasional problems continued to arise between the Timorese armed forces and the national police, including an altercation near a nightclub in Dili which remains under investigation.

Serious incidents were reported in Maliana on 2 March, and in Dili on 16 and 17 April, the latter requiring the intervention of the Timorese Police Rapid Intervention Unit.

The issue provoked intense debate and, on 19 April, several hundred people gathered outside the Government building in Dili to voice their dissatisfaction with the Government's position on religious education.

Local elections have now been held in 11 of Timor Leste's 13 districts, and preparations have begun for the final round to be held in the districts of Dili and Liquica in late September 2005.

The problem posed by the proliferation of weapons in Timor Leste was highlighted by an assault on 12 March upon the manager of the Australia New Zealand Bank and his wife outside their residence in Dili.

However, no firm commitments have been made to date that would warrant such a revision at this time, although the Development Partners meeting held in Dili on 25 and 26 April brought some helpful expressions of interest.

As already noted in paragraph 8 above, I have therefore decided to establish a commission of experts to assess the outcome of the two judicial processes in Jakarta and Dili and to make appropriate recommendations to me.

Following the signing of a joint declaration by Prime Minister Alkatiri and the bishops of Dili and Baucau on 7 May, acknowledging that religious teaching must be included as a regular discipline in the school curriculum, relations between the Government and the church have normalized.

In February, Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva of Dili and Bishop Basilio do Nascimento of Baucau issued a joint pastoral note criticizing the proposal of the Council of Ministers to designate religious education as an optional subject in some primary schools across Timor Leste.

14. Also welcomes the holding, in Dili in September 2003, of the second meeting of the Joint Ministerial Commission for Bilateral Cooperation between Indonesia and Timor Leste, which emphasized the importance of good relations and of further enhancing and facilitating cooperation in all areas of common interest

To this end, UNOTIL organized a brainstorming retreat with officials of the Timor Leste Government, representatives of the diplomatic community, United Nations agencies, multilateral financial institutions and non governmental organizations in Dili on 9 June, to discuss strategies and assistance programmes for the implementation of the Mission's mandate.

Its task would be to conduct a thorough assessment of the progress made in the processes involving the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal in Jakarta, on the one hand, and the Serious Crimes Unit and the Special Panels for serious crimes in Dili, on the other, and to make appropriate recommendations to me.

On 15 March, a military liaison meeting was held for the first time in Dili, where a delegation from the Indonesian Armed Forces comprising the Commander of the Indonesian Border Security Task Force and six battalion commanders, as well as Timorese police officials and representatives of the UNMISET military component, discussed border management issues.

The removal of UNMISET troops will eliminate a significant deterrent to criminal activities, especially in border areas, while the withdrawal of the military engineering unit leaves no immediate means to maintain the land routes from Dili to the border, which are expected to deteriorate and become impassable without such intervention, especially during the rainy season.

8, and S 2005 96), the Commission's task is to conduct a thorough assessment of the progress made in the processes involving the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal in Jakarta, and the serious crimes process, involving the Serious Crimes Unit and the Special Panels for serious crimes in Dili, and to make appropriate recommendations to me.

With respect to Timor Leste, on 11 January 2005 I established an independent Commission of Experts to review the prosecution of serious human rights violations committed in Timor Leste in 1999 and to assess the progress made by the Indonesian Ad Hoc Human Rights Court in Jakarta and by the Serious Crimes Unit and the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in Dili.

He commented on the problem of the prosecution of serious crimes involving 340 indicted people remaining abroad and welcomed the establishment by the Secretary General of a Commission of Experts to assess the outcome of the two judicial processes in Jakarta and Dili, as well as to consider ways in which its analysis could be of assistance to the Truth and Friendship Commission, which Indonesia and Timor Leste have agreed to establish.