I haven't heard of a single peacekeeping operation in the world that matches Interfet in the way it conducts itself. Yet, as Interfet began the formal handover of responsibility on Tuesday to a fully-fledged UN peacekeeping force, officials and analysts expressed concern that the really hard part of the United Nations' work in East Timor was only just beginning, now that security had been restored. The pro-Indonesian militia members have been confined to neighboring Indonesian West Timor, and the Indonesian military leaders have been persuaded to set up an effective policing operation along the border. Some East Timorese leaders say they hope that independence can come as early as the end of 2001. As Timorese return from camps in West Timor, tensions are rising.
People suspected of being Indonesian sympathizers or militia supporters are shunned or maltreated.
Crime is increasing, especially in Dili. About 80 percent of the East Timor population is estimated to be unemployed, and growing anger at the lack of paid work has exploded into violence on several occasions - most recently when 7,000 East Timorese who had lined up to apply for 2,000 UN jobs in Dili began fighting and throwing rocks. Now we've returned security, people feel safe enough to have a riot, they feel that they're not oppressed, that they can assemble on the street to express a grievance without being shot at,'' he said. But the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, in a somber report Friday to the Security Council in New York, expressed concern at the potential for social unrest here. Some independence leaders and Interfet officers fear the unrest could be exploited by militia hard-liners seeking to make a comeback from bases in West Timor during the changeover this month of the UN military command from Australia to the Philippines.