Leading Interfet is Australia, with a commitment of 4,500 troops. Even China, traditionally wary of intervening in the affairs of other nations, is sending a civilian police team. The jubilation and satisfaction surrounding the East Timor mission, however, cannot hide the difficulties that remain. Indeed, it is clear that East Timor, which was desperately poor to begin with, will be more dependent on outside aid than ever as it rebuilds itself virtually from scratch. Then there is the matter of displaced East Timorese.
Many survivors speak of being separated from loved ones during the violence.
Some 200,000 East Timorese were forcibly removed to camps in West Timor, many of them militia-controlled. Amid concerns over food and water shortages, there are rumors that these refugees will be relocated elsewhere in Indonesia. Aid workers fear that the refugees may later be used as bargaining pawns. The pro-integrationists, who remain bitterly opposed to East Timor's separation from Indonesia and have demanded a partition of the territory, provide the final stumbling block. While the militias have been relatively quiet since Interfet's deployment, they are still a potential threat to peace - a point that was reinforced when a Dutch journalist who had landed in East Timor on Sept. 21 was killed that same evening by suspected militiamen.