Minister for Defence Mr Michael Smith will today review Irish troops on their way to East Timor for a four-month tour of duty.
The Minister will be joined by Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lieut Gen Colm Mangan at Collins Barracks in Cork to review the seventh Irish component to travel with the UN to East Timor.
The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor was set up in October 1999. The UN has been guiding the territory, which was a Portuguese colony for more than 400 years before falling under Indonesian rule for 24 years, to independence.
The results of the country’s first free elections yesterday showed resistance party Fretilin as the clear winner.
The election took place on August 30th. Fretilin, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, won 57.3 per cent of the overall vote, giving it 55 of the 88 seats in the constituent assembly.