After an occupation lasting 24 years and 328 days, Indonesian troops finally left East Timor soil for good yesterday.
The last contingent slipped away at dead of night from the port of Dili in an old troop ship almost as rusty as the landing craft once used by the invading Indonesian army on December 7th, 1975 which now lie abandoned on the nearby beach.
No local residents bothered to stay up to watch Indonesian naval vessel No 513 as it finally chugged out to sea, several hours after its planned departure time from the former Portuguese colony. Armoured personnel carriers from the international force in East Timor (Interfet) sealed off streets near the harbour but there was no sign of the crowds which on Friday gathered to jeer the last 1,000 Indonesian soldiers as they arrived to board ship along with Indonesian police and diplomatic and civil service personnel.
People in the streets also largely ignored trucks carrying platoons of Indonesian troops in red berets to the port on Saturday. Some soldiers looked bewildered, others apprehensive.
The sense of relief among Dili residents at the end of a quarter of a century of repression was palpable yesterday afternoon when Bishop Carlos Belo, spiritual leader of the mainly Catholic territory, led thousands of people along the sea front road in an annual religious parade.
It was the biggest public celebration since pro-Jakarta militias and Indonesian soldiers destroyed the East Timor capital after a pro-independence vote on August 30th.
The Nobel Peace prizewinner said simply of the Indonesian military "they were defeated". Bishop Belo added, "We hope the Indonesian army one day will learn to be democratic, not to be a feudal army, an authoritarian army, but to respect human rights, respect other peoples - their civilisation, their culture and their identity."
Senior Indonesian officers left on Saturday from Dili airport where former resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, who is East Timor's likely first president, attended a small farewell ceremony.
Mr Ian Martin, acting head of the United Nations administration for East Timor (UNTAET), and Maj Gen Peter Cosgrove, the Australian commander of the international force in East Timor (Interfet), were also present. "It means the historical mistakes end on this historic day," Mr Gusmao told reporters at the airport after handshakes and good wishes for the departing military officers, remarkable acts of conciliation after the Indonesian army's role in creating and arming the militias which left East Timor a wasteland and scattered its people. All in the farewell party regard future good relations with Indonesia and its armed forces as strategically important.
"We are now in a position to look at the future," Mr Gusmao said. "We hope the two countries can develop a friendly, co-operative relationship." The executive authority for the former Portuguese colony now resides with UNTAET, which will guide East Timor to full self-government.