High above Dili, over fog-shrouded mountains covered in dense eucalyptus forests, lies Aileau, a sprawling town surrounded by rice paddies and garden plots with coffee bushes. About 75 per cent of the houses here were destroyed by pro-Indonesia militias, though the little Catholic church survived.
Irish accents can be heard in Aileau these days. The task of helping to rebuild the town, which is to become the new headquarters of the Falintil resistance movement, has been given to the Irish aid agency, GOAL, which has five members in East Timor.
Following the destruction of East Timor and the withdrawal of Indonesian forces, a host of international aid agencies, governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are rushing in to fill the vacuum. From Ireland, along with GOAL, Concern has established a base in the capital Dili. The Irish Government is sending an assessment team this week.
The would-be international saviours of East Timor are faced with two daunting questions: how best to help construct a country from nothing, and how to achieve this without creating a culture of dependency, as happened in Cambodia? It is not simply that the former Portuguese colony is a wreck. This fledgling country has no parliament, bureaucracy, police, judges, courts, legal or tax system, no postal service, school curriculum or health scheme. Its only national organisation is the Catholic church.
East Timor lacks almost all basic essentials. It has virtually no hotels, taxis, trucks or shops. It has no radio or television service or newspapers. There are few natural resources - mainly coffee and marble. Most people are subsistence farmers, and few have higher education.
With the establishment of military security, world bodies have been able to begin on-the-ground assessments of just what is needed, and the cost, which could run to $2 billion over 10 years.
A 15-nation World Bank team of specialists arrived on Friday to look at reconstruction requirements. Its leader, Mr Klaus Rohland, said his goals were to help East Timor reach full independence debt-free. He said East Timorese should be involved in all planning and implementation, a point emphasised by the inclusion in his team of several East Timorese, led by former governor Mario Carrascalao.
"We believe that in the case of East Timor, this new country should not start with any debt," Mr Rohland said, announcing a trust fund of $5-10 million a year of grant-financing, which would be increased perhaps tenfold by other participants, including the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank and the European Union.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, told a forum on development aid in Dublin last week that a Foreign Affairs assessment team would visit Dili in early November. She plans to travel to East Timor herself soon afterwards.
Of £1 million already pledged from Ireland's £178 million development aid budget, £400,000 will go to three UN agencies.
Many aid workers to whom I spoke at their temporary offices in a former teacher training college in Dili - which has become a virtual NGO city - agreed that education and training are top priorities. Some are worried that local people will not be involved enough, especially as the best qualified were forced to leave under Indonesian rule.
"I would be very concerned that East Timorese are not being involved," said Mr Noel Molony, who heads the five-member Concern mission. "They should be in on meetings and their training needs identified as soon as possible. Otherwise, I'm afraid we are on the crest of spending a lot of money unwisely." Concern will focus on empowering and training people and helping in the democratisation process, he said.
Involving local people is also a priority with GOAL, said team leader Mr Ken Ryan. GOAL was asked to assist in the reconstruction of 2,000 houses in Aileau by the UN High Commission for Refugees. "They will decide what sort of reconstruction they want," explained his colleague Mr Eoghan O Suilleabhain, an engineer. "The East Timorese will draw up the plans and we will bring the materials."
Ms Ann Jones of GOAL will also help the World Health Organisation set up a central pharmaceutical system for the new East Timorese government.
The Catholic church, which has struggled for years to provide basic care for the East Timorese, will be at the centre of efforts to set up hospitals and reconstruct a school system. For now the Red Cross has taken over the general hospital in Dili and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is helping to provide the basic tools for education.
"There has been a complete collapse of the school system, and there will be chaos for several months, so we will provide support to whatever authority - the Catholic church, CNRT [Nation al Council for Timorese Resistance], NGOs - that is able to get classes up and running," said UNICEF representative Ms Paula Claycomb of Colorado, who will supervise the distribution of "school-in-a-box" kits.
Large international aid agencies like Care, which came to East Timor in 1994, are also opposed to world donors imposing their own view of development. One of three agencies assigned by the World Food programme to distribute food and seeds from warehouses, Care "is trying to promote development and we have to make sure people participate", said spokesman Mr Steve Gwynne-Vaughan of Australia.
He feels encouraged about the future of East Timor. "I was in Angola, and saw how the country opened up like a flower after the trauma of war, and then war came again and the people's spirit was destroyed," Mr Gwynne-Vaughan said.
"At this point there is a feeling here that they are at the start of something. The past is there. They are not dwelling on the past. My East Timorese staff is not saying, `here is how it was'. They are thinking more of building. That is very encouraging."
The US warned pro-Jakarta militias yesterday to stop intimidating refugees in West Timor, as Indonesia proposed creating a buffer zone along its border with East Timor. The US ambassador to Indonesia, Mr Robert Gelbard, said in Dili that Washington and its allies would not tolerate violence against refugees in camps in West Timor. All East Timorese in the camps must be free to return home.
