Speaker 1:

They always knew they would draw back the curtain on a tragedy, but now, as [inaudible] forces the UN and others bring East Timor back into worldview, they're seeing destruction on a scale beyond anything they imagined. Most of the territory's infrastructure appears to have been levelled in an operation planned, led, and at least partly carried out by TNI, Indonesia's military.

David:

The city was a very, very carefully planned and brutally executed strategy. I've never seen anything like it.

Speaker 1:

The terror campaign of recent weeks forced the UN's East Timor spokesman, like virtually all foreign nationals, to flee Dili. Now, David [Windhurst] is back to a city utterly wrecked.

David:

Totally destroyed, almost totally destroyed. There are really very few buildings that are still standing in one piece. It appears to be an act of gross revenge or anger because the East [Timorese] people dared to vote in a popular consultation that the international community provided for and they voted for their freedom. They voted for independence.

Sonjai:

Yeah. I would say some of the places were burned between 50% to 80% of the houses, the buildings, the infrastructure. It's completely destroyed. I think-

Speaker 1:

Aid worker [Sonjai] [inaudible] joined one of three key UN helicopter assessment flights over East Timor to see whether the destruction of Dili had been repeated elsewhere across the territory.

Sonjai:

This looked far worse because they have razed to ground many of the major towns. What they have done is they have burned the cities and the towns and now are systematically burning the villages. It's carried out very strategically, very systematically.

Speaker 1:

Here, they're piecing together the helicopter assessments and other eye-witness reports for a picture of what's left of East Timor's buildings. What they're seeing horrifies them.

David:

We've flown to the southwest over Maliana and Same and that area. We've seen total destruction on the ground. We've flown over the eastern part of East Timor to places like Lospalos and [Delur] and [Luri]. 75% destruction across the board. No people around.

Speaker 4:

[inaudible].

Speaker 1:

Almost 24 years after they invaded, Indonesia's military is leaving East Timor from 20000 troops down to a token force of 1500. As they go, pockets of Dili are still burning. The Australian and other foreign troops here can do little about it. Yesterday, they watched as this storage area and adjoining bank burned in the late afternoon.

David:

That's exactly what it appears to be: a deliberately planned scorched earth policy to destroy all the infrastructure in East Timor.

Speaker 1:

With Indonesia's military now largely gone and its facilities gone as well, some argue the threat to East Timor has now receded. Others see it differently, saying that the militias uncontrolled are more dangerous than ever.

Bob Lowry:

It increases the risk of conflict with the militia because, to some degree, the Indonesian army were controlling them because it was in their interest to do so. On the other hand, once the Indonesian army is out of the province, it makes it quite clear as to who is friend and who is foe. It will make it a great deal easier for the troops on the ground, the United Nations troops to actually get control of the situation.

Speaker 1:

Bob Lowry says Indonesia's military may be leaving East Timor but will still have an influence from West Timor.

Bob Lowry:

Their more likely course is that they will arm and train and pay East Timorese to cross the border and make trouble that way.

Speaker 1:

Only now are the aid convoys beginning to head out to the tens of thousands driven from their homes. We joined this one into the hills one and a half hours south of Dili to Remexio, a village where the population has tripled as East Timorese flee to escape the terror elsewhere. They saw this as among the safest of places to hide. Yet even here, the main street is lined with buildings burnt to the ground.

Speaker 6:

The military moved from here. They are military. The military [inaudible] people of East Timor is burned down.

Speaker 1:

Indonesia's military burned the houses?

Speaker 6:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

Why did they do that?

Speaker 6:

They are very, very angry with the people in East Timor because they are choosing for independence.

Speaker 1:

Australian soldiers found and treated this man. He says he tried to stop the Indonesian military and militiamen burning his home. They shot him. Others who've escaped injury in a wave of violence now wait to see whether their loved ones were as lucky.

Speaker 7:

All my sisters stay in Dili, but I do not know their [inaudible].

Speaker 1:

Do you think they are alive?

Speaker 7:

I do not know they are alive or die. I not know.

Speaker 1:

The Indonesian military, long despised by he dogged independent supporters and fighters of East Timor, is all but gone. Increasingly though, it seems purging them has come at an awful cost, one East Timor is no position to pay.

Sonjai:

It is poorer than some of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to start with. It will take probably five years of just initial work to probably help these people to get back on their feet, to get them new homes, and it'll take probably another 10 years to get the whole infrastructure back again to where it was.