Reconciliation and rebuilding: that is the message for the traumatised people of East Timor from the resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, as UN humanitarian observers find that the devastation across the former Portuguese colony is worse than first estimated.
The destruction of houses has reached 80 to 90 per cent, a UN assessment mission said yesterday, creating a landscape which a member likened to Dresden in the second World War.
However, towns and villages are stirring back to life and in picturesque Baucau, the only urban centre other than Dili which has an airport, residents are streaming back from the forests to find most buildings undamaged. The leader of the National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT), Mr Gusmao, has sent word to start reconstruction of both society and the environment, now that the Indonesian army is leaving.
As the UN-sanctioned peacekeeping force begins its second week of deployment, evidence is mounting that the withdrawing Indonesian soldiers and not just the pro-Jakarta militias have been directly guilty of much of the destruction. They have burned barracks in the capital, where yesterday large plumes of smoke rose from isolated new fires, including a bank on the sea front, despite the tight control of the streets by Australian troops.
An Australian defence spokesman said on Friday Indonesian troops had set fire to the radio station in Dili.
In Baucau, a UN aid team found public buildings destroyed, apparently by withdrawing Indonesian units on Saturday, including the post office and telecommunications building. At least six people were killed by Indonesian troops passing through the town 125 km east of Dili last week, according to Father Lino, a local priest.
Members of the team said they found negatives in a deserted police station showing dead and mutilated bodies. The aid team was taken to the town through deserted villages in a convoy of armoured personnel carriers to assess humanitarian needs. There was no electricity or water but destruction was less than in the capital. The militia in Baucau have traditionally been more moderate that in towns further west.
Bishop Basilio da Nascimiento, wounded in the first days of militia and military fury after East Timor voted on August 30th to break with Indonesia, celebrated Mass yesterday in Baucau cathedral. In the streets crowds shouted "Viva Timor Leste" (Long live East Timor).
Bacau has been entered by the UN force for East Timor (Interfet), which is mandated to end violence, and create conditions for humanitarian aid and a UN-assisted transition to independence.
Surveying East Timor mostly by air in the last two days, the UN mission found a devastated landscape in the west, with many towns empty and razed and the charred ruins of houses and shops lining the streets.
Mr Ross Mountain, head of the UN humanitarian operation in East Timor, told reporters the burning sometimes reached 80 to 90 per cent. "One cannot but be struck by all this devastation in so many of the towns that we have seen," he said. "It really is extremely depressing and gives us a measure of the challenge of reconstruction, even after we have managed to cope with those who have been displaced in the hills."
A UN aid official, Mr Gilbert Greenall, said: "We have enough food in the country to feed half a million people for 30 days. We don't always have that in emergencies. It's a fantastic advantage."
Maj-Gen Peter Cosgrove, commander of Interfet, said yesterday the first week of operations had been successful and Dili was largely secured. "I think we've got a pretty good grip on Dili," he said. "I wouldn't say that this makes it incident-free, but there's great evidence of a number of people returning to Dili to take up their lives again." Co-operation with the Indonesian Army had been relatively good, he said.