East Timor is a wasteland, according to the latest reports, following the devastation visited on the territory by Indonesian military and local militias after the population voted for independence at the end of August. Educational, health, administrative, communications, legal and police facilities are destroyed as a result. Some 250,000 people are in forced exile in West Timor and perhaps the same number is displaced within East Timor.
It is a disaster requiring comprehensive rebuilding and resources provided by the international community, represented by the United Nations - and by sympathetic countries such as Ireland, which have helped make this such a major issue. The obligation was underlined in Dublin by the visit of Mr Xanana Gusmao, the East Timorese leader recently released from house arrest in Jakarta, who is preparing to return to his shattered homeland. He paid Ireland a considerable compliment in coming here, both to say thanks for solidarity and to appeal for help in the tremendous task of reconstruction that faces his people in coming years. Having made such an issue of East Timor, it behoves the Government and the Irish people to respond with the utmost generosity to his pleas.
It is difficult to exaggerate the resources and commitment required. An initial assessment has now been made by the United Nations in preparation for the peacekeeping and development force that will take over from Interfet, the crisis intervention force rapidly assembled under international pressure as the devastation was created last month. Mr Kofi Annan estimates that the overall cost could be one billion dollars. His report, which has been approved by the Security Council, calls for a UN force of over 10,000 personnel, with robust rules of engagement. Civilian officials will be brought from all over the world to run East Timor and prepare its people for self-government over the next few years.
Ireland is sending Ranger troops to work with Interfet and probably with its successor UN force proper, which is necessary to provide immediate security so that people can return home. Continuing hostile activities by militia bands in West Timor and the deaths of several Australian troops on the border, underline these dangers. There has been a generous response to appeals for disaster relief funds from non-governmental organisations and Ireland Aid. Confronted with the sheer scale of reconstruction required, it is time for all concerned to plan help on a longer-term and self-sustaining basis. East Timor, could, for example, be designated one of the priority areas for Ireland Aid, drawing on the good work they have done and the experience gained in Africa and elsewhere. Because of the political and economic difficulties facing Indonesia, the transition to independence will be all the more problematic for East Timor - creating a need for industrial development as well as reconstruction of its basic infrastructure.
That such wanton damage could be done so rapidly and publicly by the Indonesian military and militias, reinforces demands for those responsible to be identified and punished for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The mandate for a tribunal, agreed at the recent meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, is unsatisfactory, and Indonesia has announced it will not co-operate. But this should not deflect the tribunal from pursuing its investigation to a firm conclusion.