MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UN C-24 special mission to Bermuda.

The Special Committee on Decolonisation, the C24, has made arrangements for an upcoming United Nations special mission to assist the people of Bermuda in making an informed choice regarding their future status. It also made plans for a regional seminar in the Caribbean in May.

Representatives of all elected governments of Non-Self-Governing Territories including Gibraltar will be invited. Also invited to take part in the event would be Member States, administering Powers, specialised agencies and other organisations within the United Nations, as well as some regional organisations.

The full session of the Committee of 24 takes place in early June.

The Committee's Chairman, Julian Hunte of Saint Lucia, emphasised the special nature of the Bermuda mission ? "perhaps the first one of its kind to a Non-Self-Governing Territory". Led by the Special Committee, the mission would examine political, economic and social developments in the Territory, listen to various sectors of society and familiarise the members of the Bermuda Independence Commission and the public at large with legitimate political options and the role of the United Nations system in the process of self-determination.

"The mission is not going to close a deal on independence, or commit the United Nations, or represent the Secretary-General", he stressed. It was going to provide information, inform the population and evaluate the situation. An envisioned interactive approach should maximise the time spent with the people of Bermuda, with the aim of assisting them, as they made an important step towards a full measure of self-government.