One potential source of conflict is the relationship between the East Timorese and the UN transitional administrators, led by Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello. Annan said he sympathised with frustration at the pace of reconstruction. You need jobs, you need shelter. I know that you are worried about crime, about family and friends still in exile, and about the slow pace of recovery. My friends, tomorrow is going to be difficult.
Reconstruction is an immense task.
The long-suffering East Timorese want to know when. For the time being, they will have to get used to being told what to do by the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor. But political tensions within the CNRT are becoming more evident. Miffed at the attention being lavished on the CNRT president, Gusmao, a senior CNRT official, Joao Carrascalao, the nominal head of the Timorese Democratic Union, has openly quarrelled with several recent commission decisions and thinks he would make a good leader for East Timor. Hundreds of pro-independence supporters were killed, tens of thousands were forcibly deported into Indonesian West Timor and whole towns were torched and looted bare.