UNTAG: what it will do and how.

• Position: United Nations Transition Assistance Group

The release of political prisoners and the repeal of discriminatory laws are the first two tasks UNTAG will monitor. Thousands of refugees are also expected to return to their homeland.

A massive voter registration drive, and electoral campaign are to start around 1 July At that time, South African soldiers, who had been progressively withdrawing, should number only 1,500, with their military installations on the northern border either de-activated or under UN control.

From 1 to 8 November 1989, Namibians are scheduled to elect a Constituent Assembly, which will draw up and adopt the new nation's constitution. Some 800 UNTAG poll-watchers will make sure that the elections are fair and free. After UNTAG tabulates and publishes the voting results, Special Representative Martti Ahtisaari will certify for the United Nations that the process has been clean and accurate.

By mid-November, the last of the South African troops are scheduled to leave and all military bases are to be closed. UNTAG workers will also start to leave.

Namibia's first Constituent Assembly is expected to work for five months or longer on the constitution and the installation of the new government. Shortly after Independence Day, which is scheduled to come no earlier than April 1990, the last UNTAG worker will leave the country. A Herculean military task

To accomplish this herculean task, UNTAG was deploying its 4,650-strong military force commanded by General Prem Chand, a national of India. The force is a largely self-supporting operation, with its own drivers, office personnel and medical services.

Aside from monitoring the current withdrawal and restriction of SWAPO troops to their bases in Angola, UNTAG soldiers will also ensure that South African troops are confined to bases in Namibia and eventually leave the country. They must also monitor the disbandment of the citizen forces, commando units and ethnic forces, including the South-West Africa Territorial Force.

Twenty-one countries have contributed to the UNTAG military force. Infantry battalions come from Bangladesh, Finland, Kenya, Malaysia, Togo, Venezuela and Yugoslavia. Military observers have been contributed by the same countries, except Venezuela, and by Czechoslovakia, India, Ireland, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Poland and Sudan.

Logistic units are from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom, with civilian elements from the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland.

An army of...