UN takes steps to build voter confidence

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has taken a series of interim measures to help meet border-security concerns and provide some confidence among Guinea-Bissau’s people in the build-up to legislative and presidential elections on 28 November, the UN news service reported on Wednesday. Annan, in a letter to the President of the Security Council on 13 October, had reported on the results of a recent mission to Guinea-Bissau which recommended the deployment of some 200 military observers along its “tenuous” borders with Senegal and Guinea, the UN said. Annan said he would keep this option under review and in the meantime he has asked his Representative, Samuel Nana-Sinkam and his military adviser to encourage neighbouring Senegal and Guinea “to set up, with Guinea-Bissau, joint monitoring mechanisms along their common borders and other confidence building measures”. He has also asked the UN Peace-Building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau to develop a programme of visits by UN officials and diplomats to towns and villages nationwide prior to the elections. After reviewing these interim measures, Annan will approach the Security Council once again on the issue of military observers if the situation warrants it, the UN reported.