Speaker 1:

The arrival of a ship into Delhi harbour is a signal of work on offer. Locals clamour for a days work on the wharf, reminiscent of past scenes on the Australian waterfront when men scrambled for work, and the so called bull games prevailed on the hungry mile in Sydney.

Speaker 2:

[foreign language].

Speaker 3:

[foreign language].

Speaker 2:

[foreign language].

James Batley:

Unemployment is a concern for the transitional administration. There are simply not jobs to go around at the moment, but I think there are more jobs being created every day.

Speaker 5:

[foreign language].

Speaker 2:

Ah yeah.

Speaker 5:

[foreign language].

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

They get about seven dollars for a days work on the dock. But for as long as jobs remain scarce the process of reconciliation, an important step to nationhood for East Timor, is in peril.

Jose Horta:

We cannot take much in reconciliation when we have so much unemployment, because unemployment effects the whole process of reconciliation. In what way? Those who have been victimised for so long and cannot find jobs, their mind is not very much willing to be tolerant, to be patient. So, it is extremely important that Australia increases the support for economic development of East Timor.

Speaker 1:

Government aid to East Timor is already the largest humanitarian programme taken by Australia. It will total at least 175 million dollars this financial year, of that 11 million dollars are earmarked for repatriation and resettlement, including provision of housing.

This timber will build shelters to replace the estimated 80,000 houses destroyed before Indonesia's withdrawal from East Timor. But the programme is straining to achieve its objectives.

Bernard Kerblat:

The shelter programme is extremely complex, cumbersome, difficult. It involves tremendous logistics just to give you an idea, in order to meet our modest figure of 35,000 shelters, we need to have a boat arriving every nine days into Delhi Harbour. Delhi Harbour cannot be multiplied, cannot be expanded for the time being

Speaker 1:

The timber will be made up into kits, with corrugated iron, cement, nails and tools for dispatch to needy areas. Each kit weighs about a tonne and a half, and is knocked up into a basic shelter.

Speaker 10:

[foreign language].

Speaker 1:

Two adults and seven children live under this new roof.

Speaker 10:

[foreign language].

Speaker 1:

This younger programme has become a race against the clock. Only 12,000 kits have been distributed, and only half of them have been erected.

Jose Horta:

I think much more can be done, with the resources that are available. They are not just blaming [inaudible] community. They don't talk about our side, the [inaudible] and East Timor community, so there has to be much better coordination, definition of priorities and empowerment of the East Timorese so that they themselves address the problems that we face such as shelter, food, and so on. Because right now, there are still too many people homeless, too many people without a roof.

Speaker 1:

The collapse of basic infrastructure is still a major impediment to the distribution of shelter kits and other aid. Lack of maintenance and usual wet season damage have wrecked roads and isolated major towns.

James Batley:

The transportation system in East Timor is really one of the obstacles to the redevelopment at the moment, in particular the road system.

Jose Horta:

Some areas are very fertile, very rich, others have nothing. To circulate the goods, to keep other areas from starving, we need a good networks of roads, Australia could help a lot in that regard.

James Batley:

In fact Australia has recently provided an additional grant in acknowledgement of the basic need to have your infrastructure up and running to enable the rest of the economy and the administration to function.

Speaker 1:

At least the flood of refugees from West Timor has stemmed, reducing the burden on resettlement programmes. More than 160,000 displaced people have been returned to East Timor. This group walked across the border to the town of Batugade this month, but more than 90,000 East Timorese remain in camps over the border.

Speaker 12:

[Foreign language] [crosstalk]

Speaker 1:

Here in the village of Sacato near the boarder, the Chief pleads with Jose Ramas Horta to speed the return of missing compatriots.

Speaker 12:

[Foreign language]

Translator:

About 40 people from Sacato have not come back yet. In the next village there are about seven families how have not returned. That's 70 or 80 people. Now we ask you to help bring these people back.

Bernard Kerblat:

They are literally on the fringes of survivals in the west, in absolutely despicable conditions. On top of that, they are cut off from meaningful information, or balanced information, and they are subjected to ongoing manipulation, ongoing intimidation.

Speaker 1:

For those to who made it back to East Timor, the road home is often rough and arduous. This route tracks close to the Indonesian boarder. Returnees are dropped as near as possible to their former villages with basic supplies of food rations and basic materials to sustain them.

Speaker 13:

[Foreign language]

Speaker 2:

[Foreign language inaudible]

Speaker 13:

[Foreign language]

Speaker 1:

It's in Delhi though, where desperation seems most apparent. The capital city has lured many from the country, anxious for work, desperate for food, and relief agencies like Community Aid Abroad are mindful of accompanying risks.

Speaker 14:

Rubbish is piling up in the streets. It's becoming a disease hazard, a real health hazard. Mosquitoes breed in rubbish, kids are plying near it, it causes diarrhoea. It's really important that the basis infrastructure of rubbish collection is started.

Speaker 1:

East Timor's slow path towards recovery and self government was smoothed last weekend, when 30 donor countries, including Australia, pledged an extra 16 million dollars to meet budget commitments for the coming year. Late last year, 520 million dollars was promised, and in spite of the enormous task ahead, the interim leadership of East Timor tries to project a bright future for the long term.

Jose Horta:

East Timor will be prosperous, rich and John Howard would be travelling north requesting humanitarian assistance from the rich maybe to the north. And because Australia has been very generous to us now, and in the next few years, we will oblige. We will help our poor neighbours from the south.