East Timor
- Too Little Too Late

by Lansell Taudevin

Extract

Flight UNF45 left Darwin for Dili at 10.00 a.m. on the 1st October. I was still suffering from the stress I had been through since I left East Timor. I had the opportunity to go, I asked my doctor, and he agreed. It would contribute to my recovery to revisit East Timor and see for myself how those I felt so strongly for were coping. I was apprehensive, but I had the chance to return to Dili, to see what had happened, to meet with my ex-staff and friends, and to try and help in any way I could.

We entered Dili. The main street from the airport to town, Jalan Comoro, renamed Jalan Ibu Tien Soeharto in 1997, was almost deserted. The extent of the devastation was immediately apparent. Not one shop was left standing. None had been bombed-this was no Kosovo or Freetown. But all had been burned and looted, without exception. About half the houses visible from the road were gutted. All military compounds were totally destroyed, as if everything Indonesia had built was now taken away. I recalled my advice to the Australian government in January 1999 that, should the Indonesians lose the ballot, they would slash and burn their way out, leaving nothing of value behind.

The centre of town was devastated. A massive pile of rubbish remained. Glass, debris and rubbish were scattered over the streets. Anything of value had long since been looted, first by the army and the militia, and then, as people returned, by the East Timorese themselves, looking for anything with which to rebuild their shattered homes or provide shelter from the approaching wet season. Military forces and the militia had already taken most of the spoils, and indeed offered the looted goods for sale at the harbour. When challenged by international troops, the word was passed around to the population that any prospective buyers should come back before 6.00am in the morning before the whites got out and about.